Batman Defeated
by LadyFanuilh
Summary: Bruce Wayne discovers a young artist who can recreate her visons on canvas. with Posion Ivy & Scarecrow
1. Prelude: Gotham Burning

Hey, I just wanted to let you know that I'm planning on rewritting the story so that it flows better. If you have some concerns or ideas or something that you would like to see fixed, NOW is the time! ;)

Disclaimer: I don't own anything connected to Batman Begins, or the Batman world for the matter... All songs belong to whoever I credited them to. Can't sue me, I bounce checks like kangaroos! _BOING!_

Eve is mine, so please don't "borrow" her, she may be blind, but she can still tell the difference!

Read and enjoy the revised version!

* * *

"I lost my sight when I was seven years old, it was an accident really. A little girl playing with something she should've had... my big brother's science kit had more of a punch than my parents thought... heh. I had to learn to live in a world of darkness... 

"Anyway, when I turned twenty, I started having the same dream over and over again, it just kept repeating as if it wanted to tell me something or I needed to do something about it. Finally, I sat down with my mom's old paintbrushes and started painting blindly. I couldn't stop until the painting was done... it took me all night...

"A few days later, my dad died from cancer... he loved those big cigars of his too much and... they killed him in the end. Sad really, don't you think? To be killed by something you desired and loved to indulge with...

"I was now alone in the world; Dad left me a small egg nest, it was supposed to be his retirement fund, it was enough money to keep me happy for a few years and to buy a nice place to where I could live in relative peace...

"For three weeks, I kept the painting hidden. I had covered it with a cotton cloth with silver threads, for some strange reason, I was driven to singe and burn that cloth before I draped it over that painting, but it was the right thing to do and I kept it in my room. One day, while a friend was helping me pack away my Dad's stuff, she removed the cloth and saw my painting... _Gotham Burning._ She told me that it was an almost perfect rendering of a real city, Gotham City, but the painting showed it burning, in ruins. I began to wonder about this Gotham City and had a longing to... 'see' is really the wrong word for me, don't you think? What would be the right word? Experience... I had a longing to experience Gotham City in all of its dark glory and horror...

"Two months later, I moved there... To the Narrows, the darkest part of Gotham. Why the Narrows? Why not? I wanted a place where everyone would leave me alone... I was tired of humanity and wanted to be alone...

"When I made my home in the Narrows, I started painting again since that night. I'd get these dreams, ideas that needed to be put down on canvas and given a name and presence. Then I would cover it with a cloth, anywhere from the sheerest fabric to the harshest burlap, but each fabric seemed just right, perfect for the painting they protected...

"I met a young boy named Jeeves during one of the rare times I ventured out of my home to obtain the supplies that I needed. He helped me bring my things back and I've never been able to get rid of him since, but though I may never tell him, I'm glad he's there. You see, after I moved into my home fully and Jeeves was there to help me, I stayed in it. I wouldn't leave it even at the cost of death... you could say that I have Agoraphobia now, the fear of going out in public and kinda a fear of fear itself. I had found a rundown church, made it my home and lived there ever since. Jeeves is my only link to the outside world now... besides what I see in my dreams...

"Finally one day, five years after I had moved to Gotham City, I started selling my paintings, my Dad did leave me a nice sum of money, but it wasn't enough for me to live off of forever. So Jeeves went out to find possible buyers, to help make my creations to support us...

"My name is Eve Warren and this is my story."

* * *

Next revised chapter is due for Friday, although it might be late depending on my job, I work a LOT of overtime!

Psst... see that button down there? If you click it, you could win your very own kangaroo!


	2. Chapter 1: The Dark Knight

"Look, I'm sorry about 'breaking' into your place but you really should see her paintings, Mr. Wayne!" A young teenaged boy pleaded as he followed a tall handsome man.

"Alfred! Look, Jeeves if that's your name, this is not a good time for me right now and I would like it if you just leave." Bruce Wayne said with a sigh as he turned to face his intruder and gave the younger man a stern look.

"But! But, wait! All I want is for you just look at the pictures, who knows maybe you'll find something you'll like!" Jeeves squawked as an older man came into the room and took in the sight of the two men arguing with a non-impressed glaze.

"Alfred, what is he doing in my house? Please get rid of him." Bruce said as he went into a study and closed the doors behind him, keeping Jeeves from following him any more.

"Mr. Wayne! She needs the money!" Jeeves yelped as he banged on the door before Alfred carefully pulled him away.

"Come young man, it is time for you to leave." Alfred said as he herded Jeeves towards the front doors of the Wayne Manor. Jeeves went quietly, hanging his head in defeat as he held a book close to his chest.

"Tell me, why is that you need to sell the paintings so badly?" Alfred asked as they paused at the doorway.

"Her father's money is running out, we only have enough for two months maybe three if she stops painting… but painting is her life."

"Tell you what, leave the book with me and I'll talk to Master Bruce. However I can't make promises that he will buy any."

"Thank you."

* * *

A young woman with pale skin and shoulder length honey blond hair pulled back into a low ponytail was sitting at an easel painting. The light in the loft was dim and there was paintings hanging around her, every single one of them covered by different cloths. Every now and then she would put away the paintbrush that she was using and pick a different one with a different color. At first glace, one would think that she was seeing but she had been blind since the age of seven.

"Jeeves? Is that you?" She asked as she looked up from her painting, her sightless milky white eyes searching the loft but not seeing.

"It's me, Eve." Jeeves answered as he came into the studio and gave Eve a kiss on the top of her head before dropping down into a couch with a sigh. "So, what did you paint today?" He asked with a small smile as he looked around the room.

"The black velvet and the burlap. Did you find anyone interested?"

"Burlap? Wasn't that like one the one with the scarecrow?" Jeeves asked, ignoring Eve's question as he stood up and pulled the burlap away from the painting so he could see it. It was a painting of a handsome man screaming with fear in his face and behind him… almost part of him, was a scarecrow reaching outwards, towards the viewer.

"Nice. Creepy. I thought you were done with this bloody guy?" Jeeves asked as he covered it back up again and wiped his hands on his jeans. He felt like he had been handing maggots or something disgusting.

"I had a dream… but he doesn't scare me as must as _him_." Eve said with a gesture with her chin at the black velvet covered painting. Jeeves went to it, uncovered it and was confronted by a man cloaked in darkness. His upper face was covered and there was bats surrounding him. Of what you could see of his face was blank but there was a sense of anger, vengeance and violence along with fear.

"Wow… what did you call this one?" Jeeves asked feeling a little bit awe struck.

"_The Dark Knight_." Eve answered as she carefully painted a detail, biting her lower lip before putting the paintbrush away with a sigh. She stood up and stretched her back with a groan and picked up the painting, hung it on a wall before standing back and glazed at it with her sightless eyes. Jeeves came to stand next to her and studied the painting. It was of a beautiful woman with red hair and poison green eyes. She was standing next to a tree, holding a red rose and was smiling in a sexy 'come hither' look.

"Sexy." Jeeves said with a sly smile. Eve just hit him on the arm and went to a dresser and pulled out a green silk cloth and covered the painting.

"Hey! I was enjoying that!" Jeeves yelped.

"If you want to feel horny, read Playboy. Besides the name of this painting is _Poison_ and I think you can guess why." Eve shot back at him as she sat down on the couch with a sigh and rubbed her hand. It was sore from holding a paintbrush all day without a break.

"You should be careful, babe, I don't want you repeating last month." Jeeves said as he sat down next to her and glanced at her worriedly.

"Don't worry about me Jeeves… I'll be fine." Eve sighed as she leaned back and stared at the ceiling even though she couldn't see it.

"You weren't fine, you almost killed yourself I mean, painting day and night for three days! You couldn't sleep… you scared me."

"I'm sorry… what did they say?"

"One said flat out, 'no'. Three 'maybes' which also means no. Oh! And one tossed me out of his house but the butler said that he would try talking to him later and show him the book." Jeeves answered as he ran his hand trough his spiky white hair.

"Really? I was wondering where the book was." Eve said softly as she pulled the elastic out of her hair and combed her fingers through it, wincing a little when she shagged a few knots. "Who was the one with the nice butler?"

"Bruce Wayne. The butler is Alfred. I'll try again tomorrow… maybe someone not as rich as those snots might give us the time." Jeeves said as he stood up and kissed Eve on the top of her head before leaving for his bedroom for the night. Eve sat quietly as she thought about what Jeeves told her before curling up on the couch like a cat and went to sleep… although it was a bit troubled since she was still dreaming about the dark knight.

* * *

_Eve was standing in the middle of a large cave where there was bats flying around her. She turns her head quickly when a sound reached her ears. She quickly stepped backwards as a figure came out of the shadows, stalking her, circling around her like a predator hunting his next victim._

_"_Leave me alone! Go away!_" Eve cried out as she covered her ears and turned away from her dark tormenter. _

_"Why?" He whispered in harsh, deep voice that echoed around the cave, causing more bats to take flight, encircling around them. She could hear the roar of a waterfall that nearly drowned out the sound of the bats… nearly._

_"_Leave me alone!_" Eve cried out again fearfully. He came up behind her and leaned closer to her so that his face was near hers._

_"Why?" He whispered again in her ear, his breath warm on her cheek. She gasped and jerked away in fear when she realized that he was nearby. _

_"_I'm scared of you…_" Eve whispered as she brought her hands down from her ears and hugged herself tightly. "_I'm scared of you… you frighten me…_" Eve whispered to herself, almost a chant._

_"Don't be."_

* * *

Eve's eyes opened and she sat up with a small groan. There was something about her nightmare that keeps changing… when she is frighten to death about dreaming him again, something changes and she wants to see more. Slowly Eve stood up and walked to her desk, pulled out another canvas and started painting in pitch black.

"Shit Eve, you can't keep doing this to yourself! It'll kill you!" Jeeves scolded as when he found Eve asleep in front of a painting that was covered with a pale translucent cloth that barely hid the painting underneath.

"Jeeves? Please don't be mad at me. I had to paint her." Eve said as she as she glazed upwards, her blind eyes seemed to be able to see the painting. Her skin had taken on an ashy look from not enough sleep and she had large dark circles under her eyes that looked almost bruised.

"Alright…" Jeeves sighed and glanced at the painting. "Why did you paint an angel with a bleeding rose? What's the name of this one?"

"Broken Hearts. _The Angel of Broken Hearts_." Eve said with a small smile.

"I like it. She's stunning." Jeeves said. "However, you must promise me that you won't do anymore late night painting until you are fully rested."

"Only if you give up your computer." Eve replied back sweetly as she ruffled his hair. "I'll try." Eve promised.

"Okay pretty girl, time for you to jump in the shower cause that Alfred guy was a godsend." Jeeves said as he pushed Eve towards the bathroom. "And the big man himself is going to visit us! Maybe he'll like some of the paintings and buy one of them!"

"Jeeves… don't get your hopes up." Eve said as she laid a hand on Jeeves's arm, bringing Jeeves back to earth.

"Hey! One can dream! Now take that shower pretty girl." Jeeves said as he gave her another shove towards the bathroom and left. Eve smiled after him. He may be younger then she was but he was like an older brother to her. Very over protected brother.

As Eve closed the bathroom door behind her and started her shower, she thought about Jeeves's hope that they could sell one of the paintings… just one. They need the money badly although there was still some time before they were completely out of money.

"This one is called _Heaven and Hell_, can you guess why?" Eve heard Jeeves's voice as she came down the stairs from the bell tower where she spends most of her time.

"I don't see it." A deep voice answered, with a hint of puzzlement in his voice as he tried to find the secret in the painting.

"That is because there _isn't_ anything." Eve answered as she came up next to him, surprising him and Jeeves. "Everyone looks at this painting, sees the name and thinks that there is a heaven and hell in there. All this is just a portrait of a family and nothing more. I'm Eve Warren." Eve said with a small smile but didn't look at him, instead faced the painting.

"Bruce Wayne." He replied with a smile. He turned back to the portrait and studied it again. "Why call it _Heaven and Hell _then?" He asked.

"Cause being part of a family can be heaven… _and_ hell. There's the happiness that brings your parents together, the happiness of having a child of your very own. But there's sorrow in there too, your child might die young, you might lose both parents. You can't have happiness without sorrow. Life is not made that way." Eve answered as she glanced at the painting briefly before turning to Bruce.

"Your eyes…" Bruce started as he stared at Eve's milky eyes.

"Yah, I'm blind but it doesn't bother me anymore." Eve said as she turned away from Bruce. "So, see any paintings you like?" She asked as she moved along the paintings, running her fingers along the cloth before pausing at one. "This one might interest you." Eve said as she pulled the dark velvet off revealing a painting of a man wearing battle worn armor.

"I like it. What is it called?" Bruce asked as he came up next her Eve with Jeeves following along behind.

"_Hero_." Eve said thoughtfully as she gently touched the edge of the painting before smiling at him.

"I'll take it. Along with those two over there." Bruce said after a moment of thought. Jeeves let out a yelp of happiness and grabbed Eve into a bear hug as Eve laughed at Jeeves's happiness.

"Thank you! Thank you. Let me go and get everything together so that it's all ready." Jeeves said as he slapped Bruce on the back and ran off.

"Are things really that bad?" Bruce asked, a little surprised by Jeeves reaction.

"Somewhat. I hope you enjoy your paintings, Mr. Wayne." Eve said as she wondered along the stain glass windows, trailing her fingers along the wall.

"Call me Bruce." He said softly with a dashing smile. "Why are the paintings covered?" Bruce asked as he looked around the room. He could see numerous covered paintings; some hanging on walls and others on stands, there was even a few that were propped up against a wall.

"Hmm… to keep them safe. There's some that people shouldn't see unless they are ready. Jeeves will take care of everything." Eve said as she started up the stairs to her loft.

"Bruce…" Bruce turned at the sound of his name. "Thanks." Eve smiled at him before disappearing up the stairs. He glazed at the staircase for a moment before turning back to the paintings.

"Here's the amount for the paintings and they'll be ready when your guys come and pick them up." Jeeves said as he handed Bruce a receipt.

"How can she paint like this when she's blind?" Bruce asked as he wrote out the check.

"I have no bloody idea." Jeeves said as he took the check from Bruce, glanced at it and was about to put it in his pocket when he realized something. "Hold it…" Jeeves whipped out the check and studied it. "Holy… this is ten thousand _more_ then we agreed."

"I know. It's a donation. Well, I should be going now." Bruce said with a grin at Jeeves who still had a shell shocked look on his face before leaving.

"EVE!" Jeeves bellowed as he charged up the stairs, taking three steps at a time and nearly tripping every one. "Eve! You won't believe it!" He yelled as he ran into Eve's loft. Jeeves grabbed Eve up in a bear hug and spun her around the room.

"Put me down! Jeeves, you're acting crazy again! What's the big deal?" Eve asked wobbling a little as she tried to recover from being spun around the room.

"He, Bruce Wayne the play boy billionaire donated us ten _thousand_ dollars." Jeeves answered and waved the check in front of Eve's face.

"Big deal, Jeeves. CRAP! _Ten_ thousands?"

* * *

After spending the night partying and celebrating, Eve was glad to be able to curl up in her couch and rest. Jeeves sat down next to her and yawned.

"I hope he comes back and buy some more of your paintings." Jeeves said sleepily.

"I don't know… I got a strange vibe off him. He's hiding something… something dark." Eve said as she toyed with a lock of her hair thoughtfully.

"Whaat? Are you kidding me? He gave us tons of money! And you get a strange vibe off him? Damn it. Does this mean we won't deal with him again?" Jeeves asked and gave Eve a sad puppy dog face. Eve laughed.

"Jeeves, that face only works when a person can see it, I'm blind. No… we won't stop dealing with him but… I guess it's just me." Eve said as she ran her fingers through her hair and groaned. "Was he hot?" She asked softly and almost shyly as she twined her hair around her fingers.

"Hot? Err… Eve how can you be asking me this? I mean, I'm a guy for crying out loud!" Jeeves yelped.

"You're right, I shouldn't have asked." Eve replied and patted him on the knee before curling up again.

"…yah. He's hot. Now show me _Poison._ I need see something that is _woman_ hot." Jeeves said as he went to a green silk covered canvas and pulled the cloth off to reveal the painting. "Now this is what I'm talking about!" Jeeves said as he waved a hand at it.

"Yeah, I'll take your word for it. Now put the cloth back and quit ogling _Poison_." Eve said with a smile as she patted Jeeves on the back and went to her bedroom. "I'm going to see if I can sleep, so night-night."

"You mean good morning!" Jeeves yelled after her and turned back to the painting. "I would love to meet her." He said softy as he covered it up again.


	3. Chapter 2: Masquerade

* * *

"Hello! What do we have here?" Jeeves asked as he came into the loft and dumped a bunch of mail but held up one letter.

"What is it?" Eve asked as she stroked her paintbrush along a skirt of a dancer.

"A letter from our favorite billionaire, Bruce Wayne…" Jeeves trailed off as he opened the envelope and read the letter. "Hey! This is awesome! He just invited us to a Halloween ball!"

"Really? A costume ball?"

"You betcha, so… let's see what should I go as?" Jeeves playfully pondered as he tapped the letter against his chin.

"How about a sex fiend? Or a stripper! Yah! Then you can show off to the rich ladies what they are missing out on." Eve said with a teasing grin as she slapped Jeeves on his shoulder playfully before returning to painting.

"And get thrown out because I'm outshining the host? No way! I'll go as Zorro, how's that?" Jeeves asked as he pretend to swordfight.

"Zorro? He's overused and don't say Tarzan either. Go as a rock 'n roll punk, you got the stuff. Hold it… I just got an idea." Eve studied him up and down. "Jeeves…"

"Yeah?"

"Do you still have that tux?"

"Yah-huh."

"Try this out then, say this after me. 'Bond, Jeeves Bond.'" Eve said with a big grin.

"Bond? Bond! That's brilliant! What about you? Are you going to go to the ball?" Jeeves asked with a hopeful look on his face.

"I'll show you later. Kay? I want it to be a surprise." Eve grinned as Jeeves groaned. "As for the ball… no. You know how I feel about leaving this place."

"Fine." He muttered. Eve grinned and ruffled his hair as she went back to her painting. She heard Jeeves leave, off in search for his tux and was praying under his breath that the tux would still fit. Eve laughed softly to herself before turning back to her painting and picking out a green paint, she carefully stroked the brush along a feathered mask before sitting back. She wasn't done yet but it was getting late and she could barely hold the paintbrush anymore and she was yawning every five minutes.

Even though she couldn't see what she had painted, she had a picture of it in her mind's eye. Gently Eve picked it up and hanged it on a wall to dry until she could return to it. She smiled up at it before going into her bedroom.

* * *

Bruce glanced around at the ball room and tried to suppress a sigh. He knew that he had to keep an image but he found it a waste of time to be standing around and gossiping when he could be in the streets of Gotham City keeping justice and making sure that the bad guys behave themselves.

He glanced at the entering of the ball room before glazing around at the people. Some of them actually have interesting costumes although he wasn't going anywhere near those ladies that were dressed like porn stars. The only problem is… the Bruce Wayne that he was playing just might go near them.

"Hey! Bruce! This is a great party you got here." Jeeves popped up suddenly, looking sharp in his tux.

"What are you dressed as?" Bruce asked as he took in the tux.

"Bond, Jeeves Bond. And you know what? The ladies here love it." Jeeves said with a grin as he flashed an award winning smile at some sexy looking kitties.

"Where's Eve?"

"She couldn't come… um… she had to wash her hair, no! Not that! Heh, I mean, she's, um. She's…" Jeeves stammered and waved his hands around as he tried to come up with something to say.

"Just tell me." Bruce said.

"Eve has this fear of leaving her home. I really shouldn't say anymore, if you want to know she should be the one to tell you." Jeeves said as he snagged a glass of wine and tossed it down. Bruce watched the crowd for a moment before making up his mind.

"Hey, Jeeves, enjoy yourself, I got something to take care of." Bruce said as he patted Jeeves on the shoulder before leaving.

"Uh… sure! No problem! Hey ladies, I'm Bond…" Bruce smiled to himself as he hurried out of the ballroom.

* * *

Eve stood back from the painting she had just finished and stood still for a moment, studying it in her mind's eye. She couldn't help but to keep painting him even though he scares her. But there was something about him… he was hidden in the shadows in a far edge of the painting, the main focus being the dancing people wearing fancy feather masks, partying and enjoying themselves. She tried to sleep but the painting kept calling to her…

"Who's there?" Eve asked suddenly as she whirled around to face her intruder. "Is someone here?" She reached out a little before drawing back.

"It's me, Bruce. I apologize for frightening you." He said as he came out of the shadows. "Is this a new one?" He asked as he came closer to study the painting.

"Yes… _Masquerade._" Eve replied as she went to a dresser and pulled out a blue cloth that shimmered in the faint light returned to Bruce's side.

"Who's he?" Bruce asked when he noticed the figure standing in the background. "He looks a lot like that Batman guy that the newspapers keep talking about."

"Batman? I don't know if it's him but he frightens me but I keep painting him." Eve said with a puzzled look before shaking it off and covered the painting.

"I still can't believe that you painted all of these, I mean, how do you know what you're doing?" Bruce said as he glanced around at the cloths covered paintings.

"I see things in my dreams and I paint it. That's all there is." Eve replied as she started cleaning up the paint spatters. "I just know."

"Why are you scared of him?" Bruce asked suddenly. There was something about the painting that reminded him of himself… as Batman. Eve sighed and went to another black velvet covered painting and pulled it off, revealing himself but darker.

"I called this one _The Dark Knight_. This was the first one I ever painted of him." Eve hugged herself as she turned back to Bruce. "Why are you here, anyway? Isn't there a party that you are hosting?"

"Yah."

"Then why are you here?"

"Jeeves was there enjoying himself… but you weren't there." Bruce answered.

"I know… what Jeeves tell you?" Eve asked as she covered the painting again and turned to face him.

"That you had a fear of leaving home. You always lived here? All your life?" Bruce asked.

"No. I actually lived in Seattle area but then I moved here five years ago when I found out that the first painting I ever did was of Gotham City. I had a longing to come here but I don't know why. I'm here and I still don't know what I'm doing here."

"You painted Gotham City? Is it here? I would like to see it." Eve nodded and went to a burnt cotton cloth threaded with silver and uncovered it to reveal it. Bruce stepped closer and studied it.

"It's burning." He stated in surprised and then frowned when he realized that though it looked like Gotham, it was different… there was huge statutes that held up parts of the buildings.

"_Gotham Burning_. Never saw Gotham City before in my life. At least until I painted it." Eve shrugged as she covered it again. "What are you dressed as?" Eve asked suddenly as she turned to Bruce. "Can I see?" She asked as she held her hands up shyly.

"Yes." Bruce answered as he stood still as she ran her fingers lightly along his face and mask. She smiled as she gently traced the mask.

"Phantom of the Opera? Fitting." Eve smiled up at him. Her fingers gently brushed against his lips…

_"Do I look like a cop?"_ Eve started suddenly and jerked away from him, turning away from him as she turned inward.

"Eve?" Bruce reached out to touch her arm when she suddenly turned back to him and smiled.

"Sorry about that, just remembered something." Eve said with a small smile as she covered _Gotham Burning_ again. "Don't you have a party you need to be at?" She asked softly.

"Yes… I do." Bruce glanced around the room again. "I'll stop by later and see if _Masquerade _would be for sale." He said with a small smile before leaving the loft. Eve slowly walked to her desk and sat down, pulling out a new fresh canvas as she started painting again. Ever since she met Bruce, her dreams about the dark man got stronger until she could barely close her eyes at night without see him.

"_Night-time sharpens, heightens each sensation… darkness stirs and wakes imagination… silently the sense, abandon their defenses… slowly, gently night unfurls its splendor…" _Eve hummed softly along with the song as she listened to the phantom sing his enchanting song. She picked up a black paint covered brush and made the first stroke across the canvas. _"Grasp it, sense it – tremulous and tender… turn your face away from the garish light of day, turn your thoughts away from cold, unfeeling light, and listen to the music of the night…"_

* * *

"Hello, Jason." A beautiful red head woman said as she took a step closer to a man with flyaway gray hair.

"I think I've had a change of heart, literally. The animal-plant toxins you dumped on me had a rather unique effect." She ran her hands downwards along her body and the doctor stared at her, watched her hands move across her body, his eyes filled with lust.

"They replaced my blood with aloe, my skin with chlorophyll, and…" She gently pulls him closer and moves in for a kiss.

"…filled my lips with venom." She kissed him and let him fall to the ground, choking. "Oh and Jason, one other thing. I probably should've mentioned this earlier." She smirks and runs her fingers along her lips as she gave the dead doctor a dismissing look.

"I'm poison."

* * *

_"What are you scared of my dear? Is it me?" A dashing young man wearing a doctor's coat asked as he walked around Eve as she was sitting in a chair in a straitjacket. She whimpered softly as she ducked her head._

_"Are you scared of me? Is that why you refuse to look at me?" He asked as he leaned down and whispered in her ear before standing up and resuming his pacing. _

_"_No…_" Eve said softly._

_"What? You _are_ frightened of me." The doctor stated as he came to a stop in front of Eve. "You can't deny that." He pointed out. For a moment, another man stood in his place… it was the doctor but at the same time it wasn't. His face was covered by a mask made of burlap, in the manner of a scarecrow's face. Then it was the doctor again._

_"_I am frightened of you, my good doctor, I won't deny that… but _he_ terrified me. My blood runs cold when I see _him_._" Eve answered as she raised her chin defiantly. The doctor laughed._

_"You are scared of _him_? He is the one that makes you terrified to leave your home? He is _nothing_. I should be what you are most frightened of, not _him_!" The doctor yelled at her before calming himself. Suddenly he smiled. "Dear, this is wonderful, really. You are scared of a _hero_! You are something to study, a wonder. Tell me dear, why you are scared of the… Bat Man?" He asked with an insane smile. He flickered again, the scarecrow replacing him before returning back to the doctor's form. _

_"_Batman?_" Eve whispered as her fear was temporarily lost in her puzzlement. "_But he is a hero, he saved Gotham City. Why am I scared of _him_?_" She asked the doctor._

_"That's what we are going to find out!" He laughed. "Tell me dear, why are you scared of the big bad bat? He's harmless compared to me!"_

_"_But he was the one who brought you down, my good doctor._" Eve answered as she stood up. "_I may be scared of him, terrified even. But I will live with it. Will you live with what you brought with Scarecrow? The fear you brought? The harm you did against _your_ code? Do no harm, isn't that what you swore when you became a doctor?_" Eve asked as suddenly she was the one in the doctor's coat and the doctor was the one being questioned as he was kept prison in the straitjacket._

_"_I will live with my faults. With my fear of the very man who is saving Gotham… at least I don't have to live with the Scarecrow._" Eve said softly as she gently ran her hand along the doctor's cheek. "_You are sad, poor man. You lost everything that you worked for. Your biggest mistake was when you created Scarecrow. You may have controlled him in the beginning but now Scarecrow is in charge. I'm sorry, my good doctor._" Eve whispered as she kissed him on the forehead before stepping back. He screamed at her, mad and crazy, trashing as he tried to break from the straitjacket but he was too weak. Suddenly he stopped moving and grinned at her, his face twisting and pulling itself as he changed into Scarecrow._

_"I will make you fear _me_ above everyone else. Nothing will stop me. I will break free and when I do… my dear, you'll be the first to know." Scarecrow sneered._

_"_I know._"_

* * *

"How is he doing?" A doctor asked as he paused briefly in front of a cell where inside of it was a young man, raving about bats and scarecrows.

"He's getting worse, we can't figure out what wrong with him. The antidote for the fear serum should've worked for him but it didn't." A younger doctor answered as he glanced at the clipboard he was holding. "It seems that we are losing Dr. Crane's personality and he's being replaced by this scarecrow persona."

"We aren't going to be able to bring back Jonathan?" The older doctor asked with a tried and sad face.

"If we don't find a cure in time… no. I'm sorry Doctor."

* * *

Eve glanced up from her cup of tea when she heard Jeeves enter the room. She heard him banging around in the kitchen before sitting down at the table across from her with a bowl of cereal.

"Morning." Jeeves said as he started eating his breakfast. "It's raining again." Jeeves said with a smile as he ran his hand through his rain slicked hair.

"Hmm… it's cold in here again." Eve murmured as she wrapped her hands around the warm cup. "Could you check the furnace again? I think it might be broken again."

"That damn thing keeps breaking down all the time. I'll check it, maybe something got lose again." Jeeves answered as he got up from the table, still spooning in the last bite of cereal.

"Thanks, Jeeves." Eve smiled brightly at him as she went into her loft and pulled a blanket snugly around herself and sighed in happiness as she started to warm up. She toyed with a lock of her hair as she thought about her strange dream with Scarecrow before dismissing it and curled up to take a nap.

* * *

_"My dear, why do you keep dreaming about me?" The doctor was standing before her again but only this time they both were standing on a rooftop of a tall building._

_"_I don't know. Maybe I need someone to help me to understand why I dream. Someone like you perhaps, my good doctor._" Eve answered as she wrapped her arms around herself against the biting chill of the wind. Her hair whipped around her face, covering it for a moment and then streaming away._

_"I see…" He said softly as he glazed out at Gotham city._

_"_What?_" Eve asked with a puzzled frown as she glanced at the doctor._

_"You prefer to dream about me then…_ Batman_. How interesting. Flattering really, my dear. I didn't know that you liked me that much." He said with a smirk._

_"_Get over yourself, my good doctor. You just don't scare me as much as_ he_ does._" Eve pointed out. She looked at the city and faintly she could hear the sirens of cop cars as they raced to each crime scene. _

_"_You're too late, she's dead… You will be on time to save the child… but you will be shot and your partner will die…"_ Eve whispered to herself as she watched each of the cop's cars as they raced by._

_"Tell me dear, why is that you wish to be in my company? You fear me, yet you still met me almost every night." The doctor asked. For a moment he flickered again, one moment he was the Scarecrow, the next he was himself again._

_"_Simply because you're just a fragment of my mind's eye._" Eve answered as she turned to the doctor. "_That's all it is. Nothing more. You are a prisoner, chained and trapped within your mind._" She said._

_"I think not!" The doctor yelled as he changed suddenly into Scarecrow again but this time retained his form. "I am in charge here and you _will_ scream for me!" Scarecrow laughed madly as he grabbed Eve by the arm and pulled her to the edge of the roof._

_"_No…_" Eve whispered as she stared down at the faraway sidewall. She could barely see the people as they went about their everyday life. "_No! I won't let you!_" Eve yelped as she spun onto Scarecrow and raked her nails across his masked face. The scarecrow's face came off to reveal the face of the one she was the most scared of... _him._ He pulled her closer, a hungry and deadly look in his eyes as he admired his prey. She tried to pull away but he pulled her closer into his embrace._

_"Scream for me." He whispered into her ear. "Scream, I know you want to."_

_"_No…_" Eve struggled in his grasp but couldn't break free of his strong arms._

_"Scream for me!"_

_"_NO!_" Eve yelled. She could feel that they were standing on the very edge of the roof, one push and they would fall to their deaths. "_Why are you doing this to me? Why?_" Eve yelled helplessly at him._

_"Because." He whispered to her as he gently ran a hand along her check. "You look so beautiful when you are frightened. I want you to be my queen… queen of the underworld… Queen of darkness." His smiled made Eve's blood run cold. "To be my queen, you must DIE for me!" He released her, letting her to fall backward into the nothingness of air. She screamed as her body flew downward to its doom…_

* * *

_"_EVE!" Jeeves grabbed Eve by her arms and slapped her, trying to wake her up from her nightmare. "Eve! Wake up! You're dreaming! It's just a nightmare! Wake up, Eve!" Jeeves begged as her eyelid fluttered but didn't open. He scooped her up in his arms and hurried into the bathroom, placed her into the bathtub and turned on the shower full blast of cold water.

"AAAARRRGGGGHHHH!" Eve's eyes opened wide as she let out a long scream and she started trashing around, splashing water everywhere as she tried to escape from the nightmare and the freezing water. "AARRGGHH!" She screamed again when Jeeves tried to grab her, recoiling away from him as if he was a monster.

"Eve! It's me!" Jeeves yelped when she punched him in the face and knocked him against the wall.

"Leave me alone! Leave me alone! Go away! I won't die for you!" Eve yelled as she tried to beat away an unseen foe.

"Eve! There's no one here! It's just me!" Jeeves yelped as he tried to hold Eve's arms so that she wouldn't punch him again. "Eve!" He cried out again, desperately for her to break free of her nightmare. Suddenly Eve gasped and went still, her head sinking under the water before Jeeves could pull her up again.

"Eve?" He whispered in shock as he stared at her in his arms. She seemed lifeless to his eyes. "Eve? Wake up, Eve." He said softly as he held a finger at her neck, trying to find a pulse. Jeeves sighed in relief when he found her pulse still beating very faintly. He gathered her up in his arms and carried her out of the bathroom and laid her down on the floor in her loft. Then moving quickly, he wrapped her up in a blanket before calling the emergency room.

"Hold on Eve, help is coming." He whispered as he gently hugged her to his body and stroked her hair. "Hold on…"


	4. Chapter 3: Poison

Eve's eyes opened to see white. Faintly she could hear a study beeping from her side. For a moment she stared blindly at the ceiling as she tried to figure out where she was and what happened. Even fainter, Eve could hear people passing by her door, calls of doctors and nurses as they went about their daily job. The monitor started to beep a little faster and Eve realized that it was her heartbeat that the beeping was tracking.

"Jeeves? Are you there?" Eve asked weakly and fearfully as she tried to sit up but her muscle protested the action. It felt like she had been beaten all over her body. She heard a sound of someone moving near by and then a very reassuring sound of Jeeves letting out a loud snore. Eve sighed in relief. She could hear the chair creaking as Jeeves moved a little at the sound of her voice but didn't wake up.

"Jeeves?" Eve asked a little louder this time as she got into a sitting position. Jeeves mumbled but refused to wake. She frowned as she remembered how hard it was sometimes to wake Jeeves up… even worse when he was snoring.

'Jeeves! What the bloody hell happened and why am I in a freaking hospital gown?" Eve yelled on the top of her lungs, surprising herself for a moment at how loud she sounded after listening to the quieter sounds. He woke up with a yelp and nearly fell out of his chair as he looked around with alarm before realizing that Eve was sitting up and looking pissed.

"Eve! You're awake!" He laughed with joy as he grabbed her up in a bear hug and held her tightly that Eve let out a muffled squeak as all the air in her lungs went out and she felt her ribs creak.

"Jeeves! Let me go! You're suffocating me!" Eve protested in a muffled voice as she tried to push him away but couldn't.

"Oh, sorry." Jeeves meekly let her go and sat down in the chair again. "You scared the shit outta me. I thought you really were going to die." He said softly.

"I'm sorry." Eve said as she gently smoothed his hair. "What happened? I can't remember." Eve asked with a frown as she rubbed her forehead as she tried to remember but couldn't.

"You had a night terror or something like that. I woke up to you screaming your head off and I tired to wake up but I couldn't." Jeeves replied as he grasped his hands together. Eve sighed and ruffled his hair.

"Now I remember. By the way Jeeves, I really don't like hospital gowns. I mean, hello! There's a hole in the back and I can showcase my panties to the whole word… by the way, I'm not still wearing my red lace panties, am I? Eve asked as she squirmed around as she tried to figure it out herself.

"Eve."

"What?"

"I really didn't need to know about your red lace panties." Jeeves said with a teasing grin. "By the way, the answer to your question… yes."

"Oh well, at least I can show off my sexy little bottom." Eve replied with a wink before laughing. "So, when can we get outta this place?"

* * *

Bruce sighed again as he was at yet another party. He smiled at a young woman as she cast a flirting glace at him and smiled, clearly pleased with what she saw but he wasn't. It seemed like every woman in this place where blond, dizzy and sometimes very dumb. He never thought that there really was someone who could be a dumb blond… that is until he met her.

"You look a little bored." Bruce suddenly heard from his side, almost behind him. He turned to see a somewhat beautiful woman, whose brunette hair was up in a stylish, if somewhat outdated, updo and dressed in a shimmering green dress holding two wine glasses.

"Wine?" She offered as she held out an offering of red wine with a small smile.

"Thank you." Bruce said as he took the wine and took a sip. "I don't remember seeing you around here before. I'm Bruce Wayne."

"That's because this is the first time I came here." She replied with an enchanting smile. "My name is Dr. Pamela Isley."

"Doctor? What kind?" Bruce asked interested, the wine forgotten in his hand.

"Biology. I study earth's many wonders. I was in South America studying venomous snakes before I came to Gotham City." Pamela replied with a coy smile as she took a sip of her wine. "Say Bruce, you don't mind if I call you Bruce?" She asked.

"As long as I can call you Pamela." He replied with a grin. She laughed before resuming talking.

"Why don't we ditch these boring people and take a walk alone in the garden? I hear that it is gorgeous at nighttime."

"I don't' see why not." He replied with a grin as she smiled at him as she led the way outside. They walked along the pathways of the garden before Pamela went to a water fountain and sat on the edge as she dipped her fingers to tease the bright golden gold fishes that were swimming in the fountain.

"Beautiful." Bruce said softly, mostly to himself as he took in the view of Pamela and the garden around her. Although other men might just call her plain, to his eyes, she was beautiful. Outside in the garden, she seemed more beautiful then she did in the ballroom as if nature around her enhanced her beauty to a new level and made her more alive then she ever was.

"Me or the fountain?" Pamela asked with a knowing smirk on her red lips that made him laugh.

"You must have heard it from every man that meets you." Bruce answered as he sat down next to her.

"Hmm… not really but none of them were you." Pamela replied. "Oh, it's getting late and I have to go. Have some experiments that need to be babied or otherwise I'll lose everything and have to start over again." Pamela stood up and was about to leave before turning to him and kissed Bruce on the cheek. "See you around, handsome." She said with a smile before leaving Bruce alone in the garden. He smiled to himself as he stood up and put his hands in his pockets as he watched Pamela's retreating back until she disappeared into the night.

* * *

Jeeves came walking into the hospital room where Eve was staying in for the time being. He saw that she was sleeping peacefully and came to the side of the bed and leaned down to give her a kiss when she suddenly grabbed him by the front of his shirt and pulled him closer with a deadly look in her eyes.

"Jeeves, I swear by all that's holy, if you don't get me outta this hellhole, I'll make you a girl." Eve growled. Jeeves blanched at her eyes mere inches from his that glowed with a feral light.

"It's not my fault! The doctors won't let me take you home! They want to keep you longer, something about making sure that you're okay and have no lasting aftereffects." Jeeves squeaked as he struggled to break Eve's grasp on his shirt but she wouldn't let him go.

"You're not the one that sitting here in a bloody hospital gown! Or having freaking cheerful, bloody chipper nurses coming in _every_ bloody _hour_! I had it! I'm not staying here any longer, do you understand me?" Eve asked in a dangerous voice.

"Yes." Jeeves squeaked.

"Good, glad we reached an understanding." Eve said with a please look, somewhat like a cat who just ate a canary.

"Yah, great. Glad you're happy now. Um… are you going to let go of my shirt?"

"Not until you tell the bloody doctors to let me go." Eve replied grumpily.

"Err…" Jeeves glanced up to see a surprised nurse and an amused middle aged man in a wheelchair.

"Well, lover's spat?" The older man asked with a wry smile as the nurse pushed his wheelchair to a bed next to Eve's.

"NO! She's like my sister!"

"EW! He's like my brother!" Both Eve and Jeeves yelped in disgust at the same time as Jeeves used the chance to pull away while Eve was distracted and quickly moved so that he was standing just out of arms reach.

"My mistake then." He replied with an amused look as the nurse helped him into his bed. He winced as he moved and sighed in relief as he lay down.

"Who are you? I heard your voice before." Eve asked.

"Jim Gordon." He answered. "Wait… Eve? Eve Warren?" He asked in surprise when he realized that he knew the girl.

"Yah."

"It's me! Uncle Jim the cop. I knew your dad before he moved away from here; we used to get together every Christmas." Gordon said.

"Uncle Jimmy? There's something I need to tell- Hold it, what are you doing here?" Eve asked worriedly.

"Oh, some guy thought he was smart and tried to kill me. Shot me in the gut. Damn bastard. Pardon me."

"Don't worry about cussing in front of Eve, she can make a sailor blush with that mouth of hers. I'm Jeeves, Eve's roommate and friend." Jeeves said with a small wave.

"What happened to your Dad anyway? I thought he swore that he will never come back to Gotham City. He is here, right?" Gordon asked.

"No. He died a few years back. He did want me to tell you that he forgives you. It wasn't your fault that I was blinded by that science kit you gave Peter." Eve replied with a sad smile. "It was my fault and my brother's if you think about it, he shouldn't have left the kit out. Oh, it was the cigars of his that did him in if you're wondering."

"Damn… pardon me. Well, at least I got to see you again. I missed having you playing cops and robbers with me and you used keep locking me up in my own handcuffs." Gordon laughed at the memory.

"Oh yah! I remember that. I lost the key once and it took Dad all night to get you out of those handcuffs." Eve laughed.

"Oh that's nothing. There was that one night when you arrested Santa Claus. Heh, I thought your father was going to die laughing right there when you proudly showed him poor Joey trussed up like a turkey!"

* * *

_"Bruce…" Bruce looked around when he heard his name being called. He faintly noticed that he was in a wild untamed but oddly enchanting garden. There were flowers of every size and breed blooming around him, casting a sweet but almost cloying smell._

_"Someone there?" He called out as he turned around slowly. He saw that he was alone but he swore that someone had just called his name. "Anyone?"_

_"I'm here." He turned and found that Pamela was standing behind him. She was still wearing her evening gown but her hair was let lose, so that it fell like a waterfall down to her waist. She came closer and laid a hand on the side of his face._

_"Bruce…" Pamela whispered as she pressed herself against his body and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer to her. "Do you like me?" She asked with a flirting smile as she traced his lips with her finger._

_"Yes." Bruce breathed as he captured her hand and kissed the palm._

_"Bruce…" She pulled his hand and lightly and brushed her lips across each and every finger, setting his nerves on fire as she watched him with her bright emerald eyes. "Do you love me?" She asked as she pulled away slightly, watching his face._

_"Yes." Bruce replied in a whisper. "I do." Pamela lightly kissed him but pulled back before he could deepen the kiss._

_"Not yet my love. Not yet but soon."_

* * *

"What were you doing when you got shot anyway, that is, if you don't mind me asking?" Eve asked as she toyed with her IV cord.

"I had to go into the Narrows because some rich man's little girl got kidnapped. Me and my partner were the only ones that were close enough to save her and we did… but…" Gordon paused a moment as he remembered what happened during that night. "Some crazy bastard, pardon me." Gordon said.

"You don't have to worry about cussing in front of me. I know enough cussing to be _very_ unladylike." Eve said with a wry smile.

"Heh, anyway he suddenly jumps out of a doorway, guns down my partner and shot me. I think I would have died if Batman didn't come at that moment."

"Batman?" Eve's smiled went away quickly when she heard his name.

"Yah, you know the guy who's running around Gotham saving everyone?"

"Yah... I paint him sometimes." Eve replied as she returned to her playing with her IV cord. "And I hate painting him because he scares me but I have to paint him… tell his story like I told others. Even Scarecrow doesn't scare me as much as _he _does."

"You're scared of Batman? Why? He seems a nice enough fella, although might be a little unstable with him running around in a bat suit."

"His anger and hate scares me. He has so much anger in him, it's eating him alive." Eve whispered, mostly to herself sleepily as she rolled over and fell asleep. Gordon watched her for a moment, studying her face, seeing his old friend and the little girl who used to handcuff him. He was surprised and sad to see the changes that time had made on her heart, taking her mother, then her father… giving her a terrible gift… and blessing. He sighed and closed his eyes to sleep since it was late at night.

"Uncle Jimmy?" He heard Eve asked suddenly, her voice breaking into the silence of the dark room.

"Yes?" Gordon replied as he glanced over at Eve. She was on her back unseeingly staring at the ceiling.

"What is he like?" She asked after a moment of thinking.

"Who?" Gordon asked even though he had an idea of who she was talking about.

"The Batman." She answered softly.

"I don't know… I met him a few times but I have a hard time reading him. He's like a book that is locked and I can't even peek at the pages to get a clue about him. I do know that he is haunted by something." Gordon replied with a sigh. "Now, you really should sleep now, you need your beauty rest, won't want you scaring the nurses." Eve laughed lightly before she closed her eyes and her breathing slowed.

"Night, Uncle Jimmy." She murmured sleepily with a yawn.

"Sweet dreams, Eve."

* * *

_"Dear, you're back. I thought I wasn't going to see you again." The doctor smiled at her._

_"_No shit, my good doctor._" Eve answered with a feral grin. "_I'm just here to beat Scarecrow up._" She held up a baseball bat and grinned insanely. _

_"Shit." _


	5. Chapter 4: Twisted Minds

'The Dark Night of the Soul'

Loreena McKennitt

&

'Boulevard of Broken Dreams'

Green Day

* * *

_Upon a darkened night… the flame of love was burning in my breast and by a lantern bright… I fled my house while all in quiet rest…"_

A tall, somewhat dashing man dressed in all white clothes that were painted crimson… with blood. He stumbles a little before retaining his balance, hurrying forwards a doorway and outwards towards freedom that lies just within his reach.

He could hear the orderlies faintly yelling behind him when they finally discovered the body of the doctor who was treating him… lying beaten, broken and bloody in his patient's formal cell that held him prison. He could hear the cries of a prisoner who broken free and was escaping… it was too late, he was already free. No one will chain him again… ever again he swore to himself… he was free again to bring his nightmares to the fair city of Gotham.

He breathed deeply, his chest expanding as he took in the cold night air with satisfaction that he had broken free of the chains of Gotham Prison and the chains that Jonathan Crane had bound around him, the chains that he built but failed and shattered after years of struggle…

He laughed, throwing his arms out as if to embrace the night sky, tossing his head back and let out a victorious yell… Scarecrow was free.

_"Shrouded by the night and by the secret stairs I quickly fled… the veil concealed my eyes… while all within lay quiet as the dead…"_

Eve's eyes opened wide in shock and fear as her back arched, taut as a bow as her hands curled into claws and racked at the air. Suddenly she finally found her voice and screamed…

_"Oh night thou was my guide… oh night more loving then the rising sun… oh night that joined the lover to the beloved one, transforming each of them into the other…"_

"Hi, handsome." Bruce turned with a smile to see Pamela coming his way. He gathered her in a hug and kissed her crimson lips before they broke apart and sat down at a table.

"How was your experiment?" Bruce asked as he leaned back in the chair comfortably as he watched Pamela's red lips curl upwards in a smile.

"Wonderful. If I'm lucky I just think I might find the cure to every poisonous snake bite… either that, very poisonous orchids." She replied with a wry smile as she took a sip of her ice water. Bruce laughed as he leaned forward and captured one of her hands in his.

_"Upon that misty night… in secrecy, beyond such mortal sight… without a guide or light then that which burned so deeply in my heart…"_

"No…" Eve breathed out in a sigh as her body relaxed for a moment. She reached towards the air above her. "No… don't trust her…" She whispered before screaming again, her body going taut, arching her back sharply as Gordon tried to hold her but he was too weak from his gunshot wound.

"Someone help me!" Gordon cried out as he hurried to the doorway of their room. A nurse entered and gasped in shock when Eve screamed again, blood chilling and full of fear before suddenly falling limp as if every bone in her body was removed.

"Gordon… he can't trust her." Eve whispered as tears flowed down her face. "He can't… he can't… he can't!" She screamed the last word, holding her head as if something was trying to break its way in. The nurse quickly called for help before hurrying to Eve's side and tried to hold her down so that she wouldn't hurt herself or anyone else.

A doctor came rushing in and prepared a syringe of sedative. He quickly grabbed her arm, held it tightly as he gently but swiftly slipped the needle in. Eve let out a low sigh as the drug took effect and her body relaxed…

_"That fire t'was led me on and shone more brightly than of the midday sun to where he waited still… it was a place where no one else could come…"_

Scarecrow looked upwards towards the tall buildings of Gotham City that surrounded him with metal and power… of darkness and despair. He smiled wickedly as he thought about the sheep that moved among the majestic buildings. They were here for him to rule over, to be crushed under his foot. They were worthless, only good as sheep and nothing else.

He walked up behind an elderly homeless man and a younger man who was warming their hands over a fire that was burning brightly and warmly in a metal bin. Almost as a beacon of hope in the dark filthy despair of the alley they had stayed in.

Once he was in reach, he suddenly grabbed the older man by the head and twisted it sharply, breaking his neck, killing the man quickly before he realized what happened to him. Slowly the body fell to its knees before crumpling in a heap at Scarecrow's feet. An evil smile spread across his face as he looked down at the body, fallen before him. He was the ruler of death and fear. He bent to take the coat from the body. Pulling it on, he turned to the stunned man who was standing frozen just across from Scarecrow with the fire blazing between them offering a weak wall that could be breached easily.

"Wha..?" He says before Scarecrow suddenly lifted his hands and spayed a fine mist into his face. The young man fell backwards, trying to escape the mist but was still dosed by it. He opened his eyes to see his attacker coming at him but he had changed… in the most horrifyingly way. Scarecrow's face twisted and changed in terrifying ways as his reaching hands turned into claws, scarlet with dripping blood.

"Noo!"

"_Oh night thou was my guide… oh night more loving than the rising sun… oh night that joined the lover to the beloved one… transforming each of them into the other…"_

"Where have you been, Master Bruce?" Alfred asked when Bruce finally came home, looking tried but happy for the first time in a long time.

"Out." He answered with a grin as he tossed his coat on a chair and poured himself a glass of wine before sitting down. "With Pamela."

"The doctor?" Bruce nodded. "Ah. So that's who been putting that bounce in your steps… somehow I thought it would be someone else…" Alfred whispered the last part to himself, too low for Bruce to hear.

"Oh, Alfred?" The butler stopped by the doorway and raised an eyebrow at Bruce as he waited for what he was going to say.

"Pamela is going to be coming by soon so when she gets here, will you please let her in?"

"As you wish, Master Bruce."

_"Within my pounding heart which kept itself entirely for him… he fell into his sleep beneath the cedars all my love I gave and by the fortress walls… the wind would brush is hair against his brow and with its smoothest hand… caressed my every sense it would allow…"_

Pamela came into the living room to find Bruce sitting in front of a fireplace, staring into space with a thoughtful glaze. She smiled to herself as she tiptoed up behind him and squealed suddenly when Bruce spun around and grabbed her into a hug.

"You startled me!" She accused him as she gently hit Bruce on his arm before laughing along with him.

"Hey, you were planning the same." He pointed out as he gently freed her hair from its bun and tenderly kissed her.

"Hmm… you're good kisser." Pamela said when they pulled apart and smiled coyly at him as she fluttered her lashes, causing him to laugh. "What were you thinking about before I interrupted you? You looked so stern but sad at the same time."Pamela asked as she gently ran her fingers along his check and across his lips.

"My past." He replied softly.

"Well handsome, what happened in your past that makes you look like that? Or am I being too forward?" She asked with a worried look in her emerald eyes. Bruce kissed her gently.

"My parents died when I was young. I'm sure you heard something about that." Bruce answered as he released Pamela to glaze in the fire again. She sat still for a moment before snuggling up to his back and wrapped her arms around his waist and nuzzled his neck.

"Don't think of sad things. Think of happy, wonderful memories that make you smile." She said as she hugged him tighter.

"You make me happier." He said softly as he turned to face her.

"So do you." She replied before drawing his face closer and kissed him…

_"Oh night thou was my guide… oh night more loving than the sun… oh night that joined the lover to the beloved one… transforming each of them into the other…" _

Eve suddenly screamed again, startling the nurses and the doctor as her body arched before slamming back down on the bed. She screamed again and started tearing at the blanket that wrapped around her failing limbs and at her clothes as if they were trying to strangle her.

"No! He's coming!" Eve screamed as she scrambled backwards away from the grasping hands of the nurses.

"What is wrong with her! Can't you do anything!" Gordon cried out as he watched helplessly as Eve screamed long and loudly at the heavens. Before suddenly quieting and froze the nurses and the doctor with a strange and otherworldly glaze.

"He will die… you can't do anything. She will fall again and again… no matter how many times you try. The baby will be born dead and the boy will die of poison. My lover… fate has it in for him, you know… don't trust her… she will poison you" She whimpered, crying as she turned and huddled against the wall, curling up helplessly.

"Don't trust her… he's coming… fear's coming…" She whispered over and over again as Gordon came closer and laid his hand over hers. She looked at him, her eyes bloodshot from crying.

"He'll save the day again and again… you know that within your heart… he'll save Gotham from itself but our brave hero will die if he trusts _her_…" Eve said softly to Gordon as she grasped his hand as if it was a lifeline. "You know of him… our fallen hero…"

"_I lost myself to him and laid my face upon my lover's breast… and care and grief grew dim..."_

Bruce laughed again as Pamela told him stories about her travels through the world. All his worries and cares fading into the night as he sat next to her, drinking red wine and warmed by the fire and the glow of her enchanting smile…

"_As in the mornings mist became the light…"_

Scarecrow looked up to see the dawn's first light shine through the air, coloring it with red, purple and blue. He stood in the middle of an alleyway next to a body whose face was twisted in fear. He smiled to himself as his face changed back to the face of the good doctor… freedom is sweet but revenge is sweeter…

"_There they dimmed amongst the lilies fair… there they dimmed amongst the lilies fair… there they dimmed amongst the lilies fair…"_

Eve sighed as her heart beat slowed, almost to the point of stopped as she lost awareness of her surroundings… of the doctors and nurses hurrying around her… of Jeeves and Gordon watching hopelessly as they feared for Eve's life.

"We're losing her! Her heart beat's fading fast!" Eve faintly heard in the darkness… she knew that she should be worried, scared even… but she couldn't feel anything... she only could feel herself fading, falling into darkness… deeper and deeper until blackness surrounded her and slowly her eyes closed as a lone tear made its way down her face and a soft sigh escaped her lips…

* * *

Batman looked out at the buildings that lay before him. The wind is whispering by, tugging at his cloak playfully, pulling it backwards, streaming away from him and then forwards so that he was almost hidden in the folds of the cloak. Faintly he could hear the sirens of police cars as they raced to each crime scene. He didn't move, he knew that these were small things, the cops can handle them.

He looked down just in time to see Gordon walk onto the roof of the hospital where he had been treated for a gunshot wound to the abdomen. He frowned when he noticed that Gordon's shoulders were stumped in weary defeat.

"What's wrong?" Gordon jumped, dropping the cigarette that he had lighted and turned to see Batman standing behind him. Gordon sighed and turned back to the view.

"It's my old friend's daughter." He sighed tiredly and rubbed a hand across his chin, he could feel that he needed a shave. "She's dieing down there on some table and they don't know why. They thought it was acute night terrors but… they were wrong. The screams… I don't think I'll ever get her screams out of my mind." Gordon ran a hand through his hair.

"Something was tearing her apart inside her mind and she couldn't stop it… couldn't control it. She kept having moments of calm where she tried to tell me something… a warning. I think she wanted to warn the very person that scared her the most." Gordon said softly.

"Who?" Batman asked.

"You." Gordon replied as he faced Batman again. "She was scared to death of you but cared enough to warn you against some danger." Batman stared at Gordon in surprised when something tugged at his memory… an echo of a voice. _"Batman? I don't know if it's him but he frightens me but I keep painting him."_

"Eve?" He asked in shock. Gordon looked up at him in surprise.

"You know her?" Gordon asked, surprised that Batman knew her or of her.

"Yes… what was her warning?" Batman asked as he tried to absorb the information that Gordon had given to him.

"Something about not trusting someone… I can't remember right now. I'm sorry." Gordon looked up only to see that Batman had disappeared from the rooftop.

"You know, I'm starting to really hate that." Gordon muttered to himself as he headed back down into the hospital to check on Eve and to be at her side if the worse should happen.

* * *

I walk a lonely road… the only one that I have ever known… don't know where it goes… but it's home to me and I walk alone…. _Eve opened her eyes. She was standing alone in a vast darkness with a light shining down upon her, lighting her hair until it shone like the purest gold. Slowly she tipped her head upwards, closing her eyes as she let the light bathe her face before opening her eyes again and stared upwards towards the heavens. Her arms were bound across the front of her body by a straitjacket, her ankles were chained to the floor and there was a collar around her neck, it too chained to the floor. Faintly she could hear a song playing…_

I walk this empty street… on the Boulevard of Broken Dreams… where the city sleeps… and I'm the only one and I walk alone… _Eve looked down at the ground and saw that she was standing on a raised platform. _

_"_Why am I here!_" Eve yelled into the darkness. "_I paid my dues! I gave my sight! Why am I here?_" She asked of the darkness. She heard a wry chuckle from behind and twisted around to see the good doctor coming out of the shadows. Walking next to him, almost hidden in the shadows was the Scarecrow. She turned to see a woman, whose beauty shown in the darkness with a haunting glow. Eve shook her head as the song ran through her head and echoed around her…_

My shadow's the only one that walks beside me… my shallow heart's the only thing that's beating… sometimes I wish someone out there will find me… 'til then I walk alone…

_"_What do you want?_" Eve asked as she raised her chin defiantly, refusing to bow before them. "_What do you want of _me_!_" Eve yelled at them. They came closer so that they were standing at each point of a triangle, the woman in front of her, the doctor to her left and the Scarecrow to her right._

_"I want you to scream… to hear the beautiful chorus of your screams echoing around this place, bringing it alive." The Scarecrow said, his burlap face twisting with evil intents and wishes._

_"I want to study you… you are a wonder, a girl who's scared… no... Terrified of the very man who is saving Gotham City from the pits of Hell. Why are you scared of the big… bad… bat?" The good doctor asked, his eyes shining with an insane glow and longing as he looked up at Eve with a hungry glaze._

_"_No. I won't scream for you._" Eve told the Scarecrow with defiant burning brightly in her eyes. "_You know why I'm scared of _him_._" Eve turned her head to the good doctor. "_The Batman. You're scared of him too since he was the first to defeat you._" She pointed out to him._

_"She's a defiant one. Strong… brave… hopeful… and scared to death." The woman suddenly spoke as she smiled up at Eve. Eve heard a faint echoing… a echoing of a song that kept playing in her mind and everywhere…_

I'm walking down the line… that divides me somewhere in my mind… on the border line… of the edge and where I walk alone…. Read between the lines… what's fucked up and everything's alright… check my vital signs… to know I'm still alive and I walk alone… _Eve closed her eyes and groaned softly. The song was pounding in her head, beating its words into every inch of her being. She tried to hide from the truth… but it was getting harder and louder as it refused to go away..._

_"Why do you keep on defying us? Denying us what we want. He wants to hear you scream." The woman nodded towards the Scarecrow, where he was looking up at Eve with an evil longing. _

_"He wants to get into your brain… your mind. Your… very… essence of your being." She nodded at the good doctor on Eve's other side._

_"Me? I just want the man you're scared of." She said with a smirk as she laid a hand over her heart. "That's all I ask of you."_

_"_No._" Eve replied before unexpectedly screaming as intense pain shot through her body, ripping through her heart. She felt as if someone had just torn open her chest. The song came pouring out of her mouth even though she didn't give voice to it and from the hole in her chest as if it was trying to escape and just found the opening…_

My shadow's the only one that walks beside me… my shallow heart's the only thing that's beating… sometimes I wish someone out there will find me… 'til then I walk alone… _Eve fell forward onto her knees with a groan as she tried to catch her breath in ragged gasps that tore throughout her body._

_"_What's wrong with me?_" Eve asked as she watched as her lifeblood flowed from the wound in her chest._

_"They must have opened your chest…" The good doctor said as he studied the wound. "I'm worried though… there must be trouble if they have cracked your breastbone." He glanced at the woman with a puzzled and worried frown._

_"I don't want her to die." The good doctor said. _

_"_Am I going to die here?_" Eve asked of the three. "_Alone in my mind?_" _

_"No… I'm here." The good doctor replied with a small, reassuring smile as he came closer. "You will never be alone. I'll be here for you. In my own way, I loved you._

"_You showed me the path, gave me forgiveness when there was none for me and I thank you for that. You freed my soul from the chains of fear that I built around myself. You showed me the truth of my ways._

"_I just wished that I start my life over again… ease my mistakes and go back to that childhood we shared together when we were at our must innocent and happiest moment of our life. I loved you, Eve. " He reached up and gently touched her naked, battered heart, exposed through the torn hole in her rib cage. At his touch, her heart begins to beat stronger again. _

_"This is my last gift to you." The good doctor whispered as he gently kissed her before stepping away, into the shadows to disappear forever._

_"_Jonathan… please, Jonathan… don't go._" Eve cried out as she watched him fade away, leaving her crying alone in the darkness. "_Jonathan! Don't go, you're my only friend that I trust with my heart…_" Tears flowed uncheck down her face as she cried for the man who grew up with her, who shared his childhood… his secrets… and his dreams with her. She screamed again as fresh pain tore through her, ripping its way through her body… her heart. Eve stumped down curling up as she tried to fight the pain and grief that rip through her with every beat of her heart._

_"It's not your time." Eve looked up to see _him_ standing before her, the Scarecrow and the woman had vanished. It was just her alone with the man who haunted her dreams. He came closer and gently stroked her cheek._

_"_Why do you hurt? I can see the suffering in your eyes… the pain._" Eve asked tearfully as she rolled onto her back so that she was looking up at the heavens before she closed her eyes as she tried to hide from her sorrows and fears as she let out a small sob._

_"It is my burden to carry. My curse and Gotham's blessing." He replied softly as he placed his hands on either side of her head and then lightly brushed his lips across her forehead. Her eyes flew open suddenly and…_

_"Scream for me!"_

* * *

"AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!" Eve suddenly sat up and screamed loudly, starting the doctors that surrounded her. She groaned as her chest felt like it had been torn open and then sewn back together… wait… she could feel that there was a long cut starting from her collarbone to her abdomen that just been sewn together.

"What the bloody fucking hell did you do to me!" She yelped in shock at the doctors that encircled her, some still holding their tools of trade that they haven't dropped yet or was halfway out of their bloody smocks. Suddenly she heard a soft sigh then a loud thump that shattered the stunned silence.

"Shit! Dr. Jenison just died!" A young doctor in training yelped as he tore his eyes from Eve and looked in shock at the doctor who was lying on the ground, completely unconscious to the world.

9


	6. Chapter 5: Fatal Kiss

"Master Bruce?" Bruce turned away from the window to see Alfred waiting at the doorway of the library.

"What is it?" He asked before Pamela suddenly burst around Alfred and threw herself into his arms with a laugh.

"It's me! I had a wonderful day and I wanted to share it with you. Besides, I missed kissing you." Pamela said with a sly smile up at him before drawing his head down and kissing him soundly. Alfred rolled his eyes as he left the couple and closed the door behind himself. While he was glade that Bruce was happy again… there was something about Pamela that he didn't quite trust.

"Really? You came all this way just to kiss me? I'm flattered." Bruce teased Pamela as he tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear.

"Well! Fine, I won't come and kiss you then." Pamela swatted him on the arm as she pretend to be offended but couldn't hold her laugher. "I want to go out, somewhere nice… with some candlelight, maybe a beach… giving you any ideas yet?" She asked slyly as she fluttered her eyelashes at him coyly.

"I'm starting to get some ideas." Bruce said with a laugh. "I have a beach house, won't take us long to get there and we can spend the weekend there."

"Mmm… that sounds very… sexy." Pamela purred at him. "Well, handsome, better call out your jet!"

* * *

"What the hell happened anyway?" Eve asked with a dirty look at Jeeves and Gordon. "Why was my chest ripped opened?" 

"Your heart stopped. They couldn't restart it so they… well to put it in your words, ripped your chest opened." Jeeves said meekly. "Damn it, pretty girl, do you have to keep doing this to me? At this rate, I'll go white before I'm fifty." Jeeves groaned as he ran his hand through his hair, causing it to stand up in spikes.

"Sorry." Eve slipped her hand into his and smiled up at him. He smiled back and gave her a quick kiss on the top of her head.

"Well… I just hope that it won't happen again." Gordon said as he patted her on the shoulder. "Anyway, I'm glad to see that you are going okay."

"She's a fighter, you got to give her that. She's like a bulldog sometimes, won't let go no matter how hard the other side is pulling." Jeeves said with a grin as Eve frowned about being compared to a bulldog.

"A bulldog? Is that the best you can come up with? What's wrong with a cat? They have nine lives." Eve pointed out as Jeeves and Gordon laughed.

"What did you find out about Jonathan Crane?" Eve asked suddenly out of the blue.

"He killed his doctor and escaped from the compound that he was staying at. The police thinks he already started killing, they found his first victims this morning. Some of them died of fright or something like that." Gordon replied. "Why did you want to know anyway?"

"He was a friend of my brother. I knew him but not very well. I was the only one that would listen to his theories and ideas. That was how I got so smart." Eve grinned at them. "One day, his family had to move, so I never saw him again… at least until last night." Eve murmured the last part softly that the others didn't hear as she glazed unseeing forward as she turned inside, remembering her past with a young boy that she grew up with named Jonathan.

"You're talking about him in the past tense. I thought he's still alive?" Jeeves asked with a puzzled frown on his face.

"No… he died last night. The Scarecrow is now in charge of Jonathan's body." Eve replied as she snuggled deeper into her bed and pulled the covers up to her chin. "The good doctor is dead, killed by the very thing he created."

* * *

"How is my baby doing?" Pamela asked as she leaned over orchid and stroked the leaves. It purred and moved a little, revealing a snake-head like bud. 

"Ahh… you're coming along nicely." Pamela purred. "Do want to hear how my day went?" She asked as she went to a mirror and pulled off her wig, revealing long shimmering red hair.

"I got him eating out of the palm of my hand. Bruce Wayne will be under my power and Gotham City will be mine. I know, it's overused but it's a classic!" Pamela chirped as she outlined her eyes with some eye shadow that shimmered in the light like tiny pieces of emeralds and diamonds. She admired herself before wiping off her lipstick.

"Bruce has no idea…" Pamela said to herself with a smug smile as she tapped the lipstick against the palm of her hand. "…that my lips are poison without this lipstick."

* * *

Batman landed into a crouch before slowly standing up as he looked around the museum. Earlier, an alarm had went off when someone broken into the museum. He counted two guards laying one the ground, both of them looked like they were poisoned. 

"Batman, I presume?" A sultry voice asked suddenly from behind. Batman spun around to see a gorgeous redhead woman standing behind him. For a moment he was speechless, lost for words at the sight before him. She smiled sexily at him as she came closer to him and trailed a hand along his chest.

"Who are you?" He finally got out, mentally kicking himself for dropping his guard as he grabbed her hand and pushed her away slightly.

"You can call me Ivy…" She replied as she stepped backwards. "…Poison Ivy. I'm sure you can guess why, although those poor fools didn't guess in time." Ivy said with a smirk, nodding her head at the two dead guards. She return her glazed back to Batman and smiled again as she brought up her hand and blew at him a shimmering cloud of dust. Batman quickly backed away but not before he had inhaled some of the dust. For a moment he stood still, blinking as he felt lightheaded.

"Tell me Batman… have you ever loved your enemy?" Ivy asked as she came close to him again and laid her hand on the side of his face.

"What's happening to me?" Batman asked as his emotions were torn between a sense of danger and lust.

"You fell in love. Haven't you felt love before?" Ivy asked as she trailed her other hand along his shoulders and chest, tracing the bat symbol. He didn't answer as he turned his face away from her and closed his eyes, trying to regain control.

"Love me… want me… I'm your match." Ivy whispered to him as she turned his face back to her. "You know you want to kiss me… so kiss me." She said softly to him with a half smile as she drew his face down until her lips were a hairsbreadth from his. "Why do you resist? I'm here."

"I can't… I… I… no." Batman pushed her away slightly.

"Why not?" Ivy breathed, a faint shimmering mist flowed from between her lips and entered Batman's. He closed his eyes again as the last of his control fled away.

"Because I love someone else…" He replied softly as he gently cupped the side of her face and pulled her closer, leaning in to kiss her. But at the last moment she turned her head and pulled away from him.

"Not yet, love. Your time will come soon. But in the meantime, I think it might be a good idea to leave the scene of crime." Ivy said with a sly smile as she paused at a doorway. "Ta, love." She laughed as she blew him a kiss before disappearing.

"Damn…" Batman muttered to himself as he pulled himself together. Then he heard the sound of cops coming and knew that unless he wanted everyone thinking that Batman was a bad guy, it was time to leave.

* * *

"Master Bruce? Is there something wrong?" Alfred asked as he came down the stairs from the library into the bat cave and found Bruce wearing only a pair of pants as he was standing under the cold waterfall. 

"Master Bruce?"

"What? Did you say something, Alfred?" Bruce asked as he came out of the water and grabbed a towel and started rubbing his hair dry.

"I was wondering why you were standing under a waterfall." Alfred replied calmly and dryly but he had a worried look in his eyes.

"I don't know what happened… one moment, I was in control and then all sudden I'm falling head over heels for this woman that just stole something from the museum. I couldn't stop myself." Bruce headed up the stairs as Alfred watched him. For a moment the butler stood still as he pondered what his young charge just had told him before slowly going up the stairs.

* * *

_"Batman…" Bruce opened his eyes and found himself in the same garden that he dreamed of earlier before. He realized that he was still wearing his bat suit although his cowl was missing. _

_"Bruce…" He heard the whisper again but he couldn't see anyone. He followed a pathway that lead him through the garden but didn't see anyone. He finally came out into a clearing where there was a waterfall with a lazy stream, flowing as it cut a path through the meadow and into the dark forest beyond. Suddenly out of the water, Ivy walked cloth in ivy leaves and flowers. Her long flowing red hair that shimmered in the sun like fire framed her perfect face._

_"Bruce…" He turned to find Pamela standing behind him. Pamela smiled up at him as she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him soundly. He could feel Ivy trailing her hand along his back before he turned to her and kissed her too. Bruce was getting a sense of being overwhelmed with passion that surrounded him in the meadow. _

_"Poison…" A voice whispered among the trees as a gentle breeze made the leaves dance upon their stems. "Poison… deadly… fatal…" The whisper sounded in the waters of the stream as it flowed by them._

_"What's happening? I feel…" Bruce pulled away from the two and backed away, swaying a little. Ivy smirked at him as she ran a finger along her lips, while Pamela came closer and kissed him again._

_"Fatal kiss… poison…" He heard again. He tossed his head back so that he was looking up at the heavens, closing his eyes as his senses overwhelmed him._

_"Poison… fatal kiss… deadly…" He heard again and felt a feathery touch on his check before disappearing. He looked down to see a woman standing before him, covered by a black cloth draped over her like a little girl pretending to be a ghost. Without thinking, Bruce reached out and touched her head, grasping the cloth and started to pull it away._

_"Kiss… toxic… poison… fatal kiss…" He pulled at the cloth, noticing that it was bloody before it fell away, revealing a young woman standing before him, her long bloody hair covering her face. There were cuts that trailed up and down her arms and the simple dress she was wearing was old and tattered with age._

_"Don't mind her." Ivy whispered in his ear as she stroked his arm._

_"She is nothing… a simple girl with a broken heart… killed by poison." Pamela said softly from his other side as she nuzzled his neck._

_"Kiss her… she will tell you your dream…" Ivy murmured as she cast a sly look at the woman standing before them._

_"Why?" Bruce asked as he reached out and slowly brushed her hair away from her face._

_"Kiss her… she will tell you your fears… your future." Pamela whispered into his ear as she gave the woman a mistrustful look. There was something about her face that reminded him of someone but he couldn't place it… until her eyes met his. They were milky white but there was death in their depths, haunted by knowledge of something. She pulled his face closer and gently kissed him, a barest brush of her lips across his._

_"Fate has it in for you, love." She whispered to him softly, her lips near his ear. "She may love the brave but she loves to see them fall more. You will save fair Gotham… but you will fall and then Gotham will fall with you into darkness. The people hates the heroes but love the fallen with all their hearts. Broken hearts… poisoned kisses… I fear for you, love. Sorrow and darkness follows in your footsteps." She kissed his check and faded away before he could move._

_"Bruce…"_

_"Batman…"_

* * *

Eve opened the door to her green house and entered it, the warmth wrapping around her like a blanket. She sighed with happiness to be home as she walked along the plants, trailing her fingers along their leaves before coming to a table that was covered with empty pots and lose soil. 

"Eve?" She heard her name being called suddenly, breaking into the peacefulness of the green house. Eve turned her head a little to show that she heard him before returning to the spider plant that she was repotting.

"Good evening, Bruce." Eve said when he was right behind her. For a moment Bruce stood still behind her, watching as she replanted the spider in a new, bigger pot.

"It's a silly question, I feel a little dumb asking this." Bruce said as he toyed with a leaf of Basil, releasing its strong scent.

"You know what my Dad said to me when I asked a dumb question?" Eve smiled mostly to herself as she packed the dirt around the spider's root. "Girl, that was dumb… but I'm glad you asked. You know what he meant by that?" Eve asked as she turned to face Bruce, wiping her hands on her jeans before brushing her hair out of her face leaving a smudge of dirt on her forehead.

"No." Bruce answered, curious what the answer would be.

"He told me that even though it _was_ a dumb question, I cared enough to ask, I cared about his opinion and I cared about the very thing I was asking about. So, Bruce, what was the dumb question you wanted to ask me?" Eve said with a small smile before turning back to her plants that were waiting to be repotted.

"What do you know about dreams? Can they come true?" He asked. For a moment Eve worked in silence as she thought about Bruce's question.

"The future is never laid out before you, Bruce. Fate likes to leave you in the dark, she's not going to show you her hand. She might show you something in a dream… but it may or may not come true." Eve replied with a shrug as she gently removed a tea rose from its pot and placed it in a new pot. "You had a strange dream, didn't ya?" Eve asked with a small smile.

"Yes. I did." Bruce replied with a grin.

"Tell you what, help me with these plants and see how you feel afterwards. Who knows, maybe you'll feel better after getting your hands dirty." Eve said with a sly smile. Bruce grinned as he removed his jacket and rolled up his sleeves as he came and stood next to Eve.

"So… how do I do this?" He asked as he took in the plants on the potting table. Eve took his hands and guided them to another spider plant.

"First you gotta take the plant out." Eve said with a grin.

"Of course."

"Then you check the roots to make sure that there isn't any disease or unwanted bugs, place it in a new, bigger pot that has some soil on the bottom…" Eve gently spread the roots a little so that it wasn't clumped together. "Place some soil around it until you cover the roots, lightly pack it in, water it and you're done!"

"Pamela would like you, she's into plants." Bruce said as he picked out another plant and started repotting it.

"Pamela? Oh, yah… your girlfriend." Eve calmly started on another plant. They worked together for a moment when Bruce realized something.

"I never told you about Pamela being my girlfriend… did I?" He asked himself confused.

"Hmm?" Eve asked, not really listening to him anymore as she bit the edge of her lip as she tailed her fingers along the roots of a plant with a frown. "Damn… root rot. I'm so sorry, Joey. Let me see if it's treatable."

"Joey? You name your plants?" Bruce asked with an amused look on his face.

"Yah, got a problem with that?" Eve asked as she placed her fist on her hips and gave him a defiant look.

"I think that would work better if you didn't have dirt on your nose." Bruce said with a laugh as he wiped the dirt off her nose.

"Oh, thanks." Eve said as she rubbed the back of her hand across her nose and smudged it even more. Bruce laughed as he tugged her over to a sink.

"You're just making it worse, you should wash your hands and then your face." He said to her with a laugh. Eve laughed along as she washed her hands and her face.

"There. How's that?" She asked turning her face to him so that he could make sure that it was clean.

"Better. Oh, shot! I have to go." Bruce said as he glanced at his watch and grabbed his coat. "I'll see you around." He called out as he left the greenhouse. Eve stood still for a moment before she sighed and started cleaning the potting table.

"Poison… fatal kiss. Hmm… what were you dreaming about, Bruce?" Eve asked to empty air as she let the water run through her fingers.

* * *

"Pamela, I'm sorry I was late." Bruce said as he came into her office and gave her a kiss. 

"You're here." Pamela pointed out. "Besides, I wasn't done until just a few moments ago, so your timing was perfect." She said as she pulled on a coat and grabbed her hand bag. "So, what wonderful place are you taking me to now?" She teased him.

"I was thinking about something with… candlelight… red roses and… a roaring fire." Bruce wrapped an arm around her shoulders and hugged her against his side as they left the building.

"Ohh, handsome, you're spoiling me." Pamela said as she gave him a gentle swat.

"Dr. Isley!" There's a problem with experiment 107." A young doctor said as he hurried out of the doorway and caught up with the pair. Pamela sighed as she turned back to Bruce.

"Sorry, handsome. I guess that night is going have to wait. I'll try to come by if it's not too late." Pamela said as she gave him a quick kiss before following the other doctor into the building. Bruce watched her enter the building with a small smile. Just before she went through the doorway, Pamela turned and blew him a kiss with a laugh before disappearing inside.

* * *

_Eve found herself standing alone in the darkness but she wasn't bothered by it… she had lived most of her life in darkness. Suddenly a spotlight shone on her, lighting her up and Eve started in surprised as she looked around._

_"Do you fear him?" A voice whispered out of the shadows. Eve turned to the sound of the voice but couldn't find the speaker._

_"_Who? Who are you talking about?_" Eve asked to the darkness as she slowly turned around, seeking the speaker._

_"The Batman. The hero of Gotham City and the villain of your nightmares." A new whispered asked. "Why do you fight so hard for him? You refused to die… when everyone else did."_

_"_I never knew when to stop._" Eve whispered to herself as she held up her hands before her. They were covered with dirt as if she just had been potting. She turned her hands one way and then another as she examined them as if they were not part of her body. Slowly her eyes traveled up along her arms and then down along her body and legs before stopping at her bare feet. _

_"You keep giving him hope…"_

_"You offer him the hand of friendship…"_

_"You help him to see the light when everything is cast into darkness…" A figure in a cloak stepped into the light. The speaker stood still, frozen as another, taller then the first came out of the darkness and stood just behind the first._

_"_Who are you?_" Eve asked as she backed away from them, stepping to the edge of the light but didn't dare to cross into the darkness._

_"Why won't you let me have him? That's all I ask of you." The first speaker asked as she removed her hood revealing a gorgeous redhead woman._

_"_You'll kill him… he is the only one that can defeat you in your conquest for power. He is mine…_" Eve stepped forward and raised her chin, offering a challenge to the woman standing before her. Suddenly the other figure stepped forward, pulling down his hood to reveal Jonathan… Scarecrow's face._

_"_You._" Eve backed away fearfully, back to the edge of the light. She could feel a chill seeping into her back, stroking its fingers along her spin and making the hair on her neck raise with the knowledge that something evil was standing behind her._

_"Are you going to scream for me? Or do I have to make you?" Scarecrow asked with a leer as he came closer. "You told me once that you were not frightened of me as you are of _him… _will you go into the darkness, into _his_ embrace or will you come to mine?" He asked as he stroked a finger down her cheek. _

_"_No… leave me alone._" Eve whispered as she turned away to face the darkness before her. Faintly she could see hidden forms moving, glimpse of things, twisted and wailing in pain. Slowly Eve lifted a hand and reached into the darkness._

_"So… you chose him." Eve heard Scarecrow said from behind. Her skin crawled when she felt Scarecrow's hands grasp her by the shoulders and then screamed when someone or something grabbed her hand, pulling her into the darkness but was held back by Scarecrow's grip. _

_"Say you chose me. I can keep you in the light." He whispered into her ear, his breath stirring her hair. "He will only bring you darkness, sorrow as you cry over his broken body… Batman defeated."_

_"Come to me…" Eve heard a voice whisper out of the darkness as the terrible grip pulled her harder, trying to claim its prize until Eve felt like she was going to be ripped in half._

_"He has to fight everyone… both the good and the bad. A hero never rest and you will die because of him." Scarecrow murmured softly as he wrapped an arm around her middle and stroked her neck gently._

_"Come to me…"_

_"_Wake up…_" Eve murmured to herself. "_It's a dream…_" Suddenly she was falling… _

* * *

"Who's there? Jeeves? Is that you?" Eve asked her heart racing as she sat up in her bed. A sound had wakened her from her dream. She heard the creak of the floorboards and knew instinctively that she wasn't alone. With a sudden burst of movement, Eve jumped out of her bed and scrambled for the doorway but was yanked to a stop when someone grabbed her by the hair. 

"Not so fast, honey." Ivy stepped out of the shadows and nodded to the goon who was holding Eve. He started binding her arms behind her back and pulled out a gag.

"No! What do you want?" Eve cried out. Ivy held up a hand and the goon stopped.

"Tell me about… Batman." Ivy said as she walked closer. "I'll let you go… cross my heart and hope to die."

"No. You're lying." Eve replied.

"Can't blame a girl like me for trying. Gag her and bring her along. I think she might make good bait for Batman. I'm sure he won't resist saving an innocent little girl." Ivy ordered with a smirk. Eve's eyes widened with fear as she struggled to free herself but knew it was hopeless.

* * *

Hey, I'm having a bad writer's block now, so I'm gonna be putting this into haitus for a while. That means you won't be seeing anymore updates until my Muse stops being huffy. Sorry that I'll be ending on a cliffhanger, but that's the way it is. There was a lack of reviews, so my Muse got mad at me & y'all & left to find greener 'minds'. ;) Ta!

Lady Fanuilh


	7. Chapter 6: Fallen Hero

_"Daddy?" Eve looked up from her bowl of cereal at her father, who was sitting across from her, engrossed in the newspaper._

_"What is it, honey?" He asked as he turned the page of the newspaper he was reading._

_"I had that nightmare again."_

_"The one with the plants?" He asked with a worried look as he laid aside the paper and came around the table to sit next to his daughter and pulled her into a comforting hug. "Do you want to tell me about it today?" He asked, hoping that this time she will tell him._

_For a moment Eve sat still in her father's embrace as she thought about her nightmare, then she finally spoke.. "…I was hanging in the air, held up by vines and ivy. There were cuts all over my arms and legs and there was this… beautiful woman standing there, watching me, taunting me… she kept asking me a question over and over again but I… I wouldn't tell her." Eve quickly wiped a hand across her eyes. _

" _I had to protect someone or something. Suddenly a shadow comes crashing down through a window overhead and then I feel a vine snaking around my neck… choking me. I keep hearing that sound."_

_"What sound?" _

_"Someone crying… almost as someone died."_

* * *

Batman landed on the roof where the spotlight was shinning Batman's symbol onto the clouds. He looked around for Gordon and found him standing next to the spotlight, staring up at the bat symbol as it flickered and moved across the clouds. 

"You called?" Batman asked as he came up behind, causing Gordon to jump.

"Damn it! Don't sneak up on me! one of these days you'll give me a heart attack." Gordon scolded as he leaned against the spotlight, feeling a little weak-kneed at the moment. Batman just waited for Gordon's reply.

"Yes I did." Gordon replied to Batman's question with a dirty look before getting down to business. "A young woman was kidnapped right out of her bedroom a few hours ago. Normally we don't start worrying unless it been 24 hours but someone left a note." Gordon held up an envelope and handed it to Batman. He saw that his name was written across the front before ripping it open. Inside he found a piece of paper and a photo. He glanced at the picture and his eyes widened in shock when he realized that he knew this girl.

'Love, come and find me. You can find me in the old clock tower but only before the clock strikes midnight… and the girl lives. If not… she dies. See ya, handsome.' Batman read the letter over again, trying to find some clue but there was something about it that was nagging at him…

"Any ideas?" Gordon asked, breaking into his train of though as he peered up at Batman with a worried frown.

"I'm not sure…" He studied the letter again, memorizing it before handing it back to Gordon.

"Batman? Bring her back safely, will you?" Gordon asked as he looked up from placing the letter back into its envelope and found himself standing alone on the rooftop.

"Damn… not again."

* * *

"Come on, dear why is it so hard? All you have to do is tell me his weakness." Ivy asked as she stood before Eve. Eve was hanging suspended from the ceiling, her nightgown was ripped and blood flowed down her arms as the vines that held her cut into her flesh. 

"Everyone wants to see him fall… the people hates the heroes but give their hearts to the fallen…" Eve whispered as she let her head fall forward, her hair covering her face until it was hidden.

"I know that! I sure as hell want to see him fall but I can't make it happen if you don't tell me!" Ivy yelled in frustration before turning away suddenly and paced the floor. "Tell me about the paintings, _Fatal Kiss _and _Batman Defeated_. They'll come true won't they?"

"Yes…" Eve lifted her head weakly, her sightless eyes meeting Ivy's for a brief moment. "…and no." Eve finished causing Ivy to scream with frustration. Eve laughed weakly and then screamed in pain as the vines tighten their grip, cutting deeper into her skin, she could feel a vine wrapping around her neck. Suddenly the skylight over them shattered and Batman suddenly appeared, landing in a crouch before kicking out at one of Ivy's goons that had charged him. The others started for him but Ivy stopped them with a careless wave of her hand.

"I was starting to wonder if you were ever going to show up, handsome." Ivy said with a sly smile as she turned away from Eve. Suddenly Batman knew what disturbed him, Ivy was Pamela.

"Pamela?" He asked in shock as he suddenly could see the similarities and then had another shock when he realized the girl who had been kidnapped was Eve.

"Not anymore. She's dead. It is only me." Ivy answered with a laugh. "How did you know Pamela, anyway? I'm sure I've remembered you." She asked with a flirting look as she walked closer. Batman heard a small gasp that was quickly cut off. He looked up to see Eve hanging, held up by the vines as she tried to breathe but couldn't.

"Ignore her. She's nothing but bait for you. Besides, she'll be dead before you could even reach her." Ivy said uncaringly as she waved a dismissing hand at Eve. "Besides, I'd prefer to talk about what you can do for me."

"Do for you?" Batman repeated in surprise as he backed up, remembering his last encounter with her.

"I can't take over Gotham with you around. Either you join me or…" Ivy paused and glanced at Eve. The vines tightened around her neck causing her to whimper.

"Let her go!" Batman demanded as he took a step forward.

"Kiss me… and maybe I'll let her go." Ivy purred as she trailed her hand along his arm as she came closer.

"No." He replied as he took a step backwards and away from Poison Ivy.

"Fine. Have it your way… but I'm going to give you a choice, you see, this is a trap. Now it's not a trap in where I'm trying to capture you as much I would _love _to but rather a trap of the mind. Basely to answer the question of whom'd you save? Here you see our lovely Eve slowly dieing from lack of air." Ivy smirked as she waved a hand at Eve. Batman glanced at her and saw that she was nearly unconscious.

"But what you don't realize is that I'm also holding three cute little brats in an abandoned warehouse that will be filled with poisonous gases unless you save them. The location is very easy to find, all you have to do is ask _but_ you only can save one or the other." Ivy laughed as she backed away and her goons surround her.

"Where are the children?" Batman asked after a brief moment.

"Somehow I knew you were going to pick them. They are in the warehouse just off Wilder Street. By the way love, better hurry 'cause they only have 10 minutes to live!" Ivy chirped as she blew him a kiss before disappearing into the shadows. Batman looked up at Eve before turning and leaving her as he hurried to save the children.

_"I feel my wings have broken… in your hands… I feel the words unspoken… inside… when they pull you under and I would gave you anything you want, oh…"_

Few minutes after Batman left to save the children, cops came pouring into the plant filled warehouse with Gordon in the lead. At first they didn't find anything but then one of the cops yelled out when he found a young woman laying as if dead on the ground. Gordon followed the others as they hurried towards the fallen woman and Gordon silently prayed that it wasn't who he feared it to be. Jeeves had called earlier in a panic when he came home to an empty home that had been ransacked.

"Eve..?" He whispered as he came to a halt. One of the cops had already started CPR, trying to breathe life back into her.

"Call the hospital! Tell them we need them here now!" Gordon ordered as he quickly took control over his emotions and the situation. "Make sure that the warehouse is clear and there is no one else in trouble!"

_"You were all I wanted… all my dreams are falling down… crawling round (and round, and round) somebody save me…"_

Batman broke down the door and was rewarded with the sight of three children huddled together looking fearfully at him.

"You are safe now." He said softly as he kneed down and held his arms out to them. At first none of them moved but then the smallest, a little girl with a large stuffed teddy bear came forward shyly before wrapping her arms around her saver's neck and begins to cry, happy to see someone who had came and saved them even if he was a little frightening in his costume.

"It's okay." Batman whispered as he held her tightly before standing up and taking the hand of another kid, who in turn was holding the third's hand.

"Are we going home now?" Asked a little boy as he looked up at Batman.

"Yes. We are going home now."

_"Let your warm hand break right through (me…) somebody save me… I don't care how you do it… just stay (stay with me), stay… come on…"_

"Somebody get Dr. Harrison!" An orderly yelled as he hurried towards the doorway of the ER to receive Eve. "Stats?"

"We briefly got the heart to start but she arrested again on the way in." Was the reply to the orderly's question as they hurried towards an operation room.

"Is someone paging Dr. Harrison? We need her now!"

_"I've been waiting for you… I see the world has folded in your heart… I feel the waves crash down inside… and they pull me under… and I would give you anything you want, oh…"_

Gordon sat with his head in his hands in a chair at the waiting room as he waited for news from the doctors that were fighting to save Eve's life. Even though he told himself that he did the best he could, Gordon kept trying different situations in his mind of how he could had saved her sooner.

"Gordon?" He looked up when his heard his name called and saw Jeeves standing at the doorway of the waiting room with a worried and frighten look in his eyes.

"Is it? She's… not here… is she?" Jeeves asked as he stood just across from Gordon.

"It's Eve."

_"You were all I wanted… all my dreams have fallen down… crawling round (and round, and round) somebody save me…"_

"Master Bruce?" Alfred asked as he came into Bruce's bedroom and found him standing at the window, staring out at the moon as it peeked out from behind clouds.

"What is it Alfred?" He asked tiredly, still haven't turned around.

"You asked about Miss Eve." Alfred replied.

"And?"

"She's still on the doctor's table. The doctors don't know if she is going to live, her heart already suffered from the panic attacks she had earlier so they are having trouble keeping her heart going."

"This was my fault. I could have saved her."

"You had to make a choice. Knowing Eve, she would ask you to save the children even if it means sacrificing her own life."

"I know… but I still feel guilty."

_"Let your warm hands break right through (me) somebody save me… I don't care how you do it… just stay (stay with me), stay… come on…"_

Eve's eyes opened for a brief moment as she took in a shaky breath. For a moment the doctors froze as they watched her heart beat across the monitor.

"We did it..?" One of the orders breathed out as he looked at the doctors. Dr. Harrison watched her carefully, almost holding her breath as she waited, her hand reached out and squeezed Eve's hand. A slight smile passed quickly across her face that only Dr. Harrison saw before suddenly the monitor flat-lined and Eve's eyes closed with a small sigh for the last time.

"_I've been waiting for you… all my dreams are on the ground… crawling round (and round, and round) somebody save me… let your warm hands break right through (me)_

Gordon stood up and paced the floor of the waiting room as he and Jeeves waited for some kind of news… good or bad. Suddenly the door opened and Dr. Harrison still wearing a blood stained smock came into the room.

"Is she..?" Jeeves asked as he stood up quickly and joined Gordon.

"We did everything we could do." Dr. Harrison hesitated for a moment as for a moment she thought about breaking a promise but knew she couldn't. "Her heart had taken too much stress and it just gave up. I'm sorry, we tried everything but…"

"She died." Gordon finished.

_"I've been waiting for you… all my dreams are on the ground… crawling round (and round, and round) somebody save me… let your warm hands break right through (me) somebody save me… I don't care how you do it… just stay with me (stay with me) I've made this whole world shine for you… just stay (stay with me), stay… come on… I'm still waiting for you…"_

* * *

_Check back in this Friday! I got a brand new chapter coming up!_

Lady Fanuilh


	8. Chapter 7: Angel of Broken Hearts

'_Sunny days seem to hurt the most. I wear the pain like a heavy coat. I feel you everywhere I go. I see your smile, I see your face. I hear you laughin' in the rain. I still can't believe that you're gone…'_

Bruce entered the church that used to be Eve's home and looked around. The paintings where still lining the walls, everything seemed almost normal as if Eve haven't died and she was going to be coming down the stairs to great him like before.

"Hey." Jeeves came down the stairs. "What cha doing here?"

"I was in the neighborhood." Bruce replied.

"Yah, a long drive outta your way. I guess you're here to pick up that painting?" Jeeves asked referring to a painting Bruce had bought before Eve's death. Bruce nodded.

"Kay, wait here and I'll get it." Jeeves disappeared through a doorway leaving Bruce alone. Slowly he walked among the cloth covered paintings, looking at each cloth and trying to guess what they covered. Slowly he came to a stop in front a dusty plain green cloth covered painting.

"That one she only showed to me once." Jeeves suddenly said, appearing next to him. "At the time I didn't know what it meant although I think she did."

"What is it called?" Bruce asked as they both stared at the dusty green cloth.

"That's the funny thing. She said it might not come true if she named it, that she could deny it would happen So she didn't name it… although I know what to name it now." Jeeves said softly.

"What?" At the question Jeeves reached forward and pulled the cloth off, sending a cloud of dust everyway causing them to sneeze.

"_Death of Eve_." Bruce stared at the painting of a girl held suspended by vines, eerily like the moment that when he found her held prisoner by Poison Ivy.

"She _knew_?"

_'It ain't fair, you died too young, like the story that had just begun. But death tore the pages all away. God knows how I miss you, all the hell I been through, just known' no-one could take your place. An' sometimes… I wonder… who'd you be today?'_

* * *

Dr. Harrison glanced around at the expensed waiting room as she perched on the edge of a chair, clearly uncomfortable with something. Finally the girl behind the desk nodded to Dr. Harrison to enter the office of Bruce Wayne. Standing up and taking a deep breath, Dr. Harrison smoothed her suit before entering the office. 

"Please have a seat." Bruce said, waving a hand at the chair before his desk. He was standing at the window, looking at the cityscape.

"I don't understand, Mr. Wayne why I am here?" Dr. Harrison asked as she sat down in the chair but on the edge and was posed as if was ready to take flight if needed to.

"I have some questions about Eve Warren's death." Bruce turned to face the nervous doctor and sat down in his chair. For a moment, Dr. Harrison was glad that there was a large desk between her and the rich playboy.

"Read my report then, everything's in there. We just couldn't save her, Miss Warren's heart had taken too much stress between the panic attacks that stopped her heart before the kidnapping and then the strangling. Her brain was starved without air for too long." Dr. Harrison replied as she folded her hands in her lap and tried her best not to squirm under the glaze of Bruce's eyes.

"How long?"

"How long?" Dr. Harrison repeated confused.

"How long was she dead before she reached you?" Bruce clarified after a brief moment.

"Too long, I don't know exactly how long. You'd have to ask the doctor who did the biopsy." Dr. Harrison said as she crossed her knees trying to look calm although she didn't quite lose her nervousness. She had a feeling that this wasn't the question that he meant. He was wondering about something else he didn't want to voice at the moment.

"I did."

"Oh. Was there something wrong with his report?"

"No, everything was normal. Thank you for coming up, I'm sure you know the way out?" Bruce said as he went back to the window.

"Yes. I do… good day, Mr. Wayne." Dr. Harrison said as she stood up, stopped for a moment as she looked at Bruce's back before leaving the office.

* * *

"This really can't be good for you Master Bruce." Alfred said as he stood near the entering of the bat cave. Bruce was suiting up for another night of patrolling and completely ignoring Alfred. 

"I know you feel guilty about the death but there wasn't anything that you could have done. You did what you had to do and because of that you saved three young lives!" Alfred said with a sign as his young charge still kept on putting on his bat suit.

"What you are doing is reckless! You need rest! You are driving yourself too hard, even the strongest steel will break under pressure."

"I have to be stronger! Without me, Gotham will be overrun and the people who can't defend themselves will be killed or worse." Batman turned finally as he glared at his old friend before walking to his Tumbler.

"You won't do them any good if you drive yourself to breaking."

_'Would you see the world? Would you chase your dreams? Settle down with a family, I wonder what you would name your babies? Some days the sky's so blue, I feel like I can talk to you, an' I know it might sound crazy…'_

* * *

Jeeves stood waiting at the door as he glanced around. Finally Alfred answered the door and before he could do anything, Jeeves pushed past him in a hurry, looking for Bruce. 

"Where's Bruce? I need to talk to him." Jeeves said as he ran a hand nervously through his hair, causing it to stand up even more in spikes.

"Is there something wrong?" Alfred asked, outwardly looking calm but inside was worried.

"I don't know. I found something and I don't know what to make of it. Where's Bruce? Is he here?" Jeeves paced across the floor, waving one hand around in nervousness but the other was still, holding a yellow folder.

"I'm afraid that Master Bruce had gone out and I'm not sure when he will be back." Alfred said. "If you want, you can tell me and then I will inform Master Bruce later."

"Did you know that Eve knew Dr. Crane during her childhood?" Jeeves asked as he calmed somewhat with relief that he was telling someone what he had found out.

"No I didn't actually."

"I didn't either until a while ago when she got herself into that hospital. Here's the kicker though, from what I can see, Eve met him again a little while before she took me in. Dr. Crane was treating her for acute night terrors."

"I'm afraid I don't see the problem. It could be that she went to Dr. Crane simply because he was a childhood friend and she trusted him." Alfred said puzzled as he pondered the news Jeeves had brought.

"That's what I think too… it's just that I have a feeling that I'm missing something." Jeeves said as he went quiet for a moment. "Could you give these to Bruce? Its records of their sessions together. Maybe he can find something that I'm missing." Jeeves said as he held out the folder.

"Of course."

_'It ain't fair, you died too young. Like a story that had just begun, but death tore the pages all away. God knows how I miss you, all the hell I've been through, just knowin' no-one could take your place. An' sometimes… I wonder… who'd you be today?'_

* * *

"Batman." Alfred greeted as Batman pulled himself out of the tumbler. Batman didn't acknowledge the greeting but just started stripping the armor off. 

"Jeeves was by earlier. Brought some interesting information." Alfred said calmly as if he was talking about the weather.

"What was it?" Bruce asked after he had finished stripping the armor off and finally gave Alfred his attention.

"Miss Eve knew Dr. Crane, even had some sessions with him to treat her night terrors that she'd get often."

"So?"

"Dr. Crane also knew."

Batman stood still looking at a gate that barred his way. The moon's light filtered through the breaches of the tall ancient trees that lined along the wall. After an hour of wondering through the city he swore to protect, Batman found himself standing outside the walls of a graveyard. It had been three weeks since they had lain Eve to rest in the cold ground.

After Eve died on Dr. Harrison's table, Bruce turned to his darker persona and went in search of Poison Ivy but she had gone underground, almost as if she knew the rage that droved Batman in hunt of her and knew that it would be unfortunate timing to meet him. Even Alfred had noticed that Batman seemed to be harsher, not only on the thugs of the Narrows but himself, driving himself to reach new levels and often came back to the bat cave just before the sun raises, exhausted but desperate to clean the fair Gotham of the evil that roamed freely along her streets so that everyone could be safe again… still trying to save those that he couldn't.

Slowly Batman pushed the gate open, just enough so that he could slip though. As he walked along the path that twined among the gravestones, Batman read the names that graced the stones until he found the one he wanted. He reached out and traced the letters of the words that were carved into the stone before turning and left the graveyard, following the sound of sirens that had sounded, breaking the calm night air. Out of the shadows a cloaked figure walked before coming to a stop in front of the same gravestone that Batman was standing before just moments before.

"We're birds of the same feather, you and I." Ivy said with a small smirk as she pushed the hood back and kneed down on the ground. "Holding a dark secret deep inside will do that to you… killing you… one way or another." Ivy traced a finger along an 'E' and gave a small humorless laugh.

"I've been thinking about what you said and what you tried to do. Too bad you couldn't save him though. Sometime soon… he'll be mine to control and now you can't do anything about it now. Here's a gift, a thanks for delivering him right into my hands." Ivy pulled out a small seed and planting it at the foot of the gravestone before leaving, vanishing into the shadows.

At first nothing happened, but then a green leaf pushed its way upwards and grew larger until it was a single red rose that bloomed with its entire splendor among the deadly thorns. A faint red glow seemed to come from the blossom washing the pale stone in a blood red tint.

**Eve Warren**

**1981 - 2006**

**We will always remember you**

'_Sunny days seem to hurt the most. I wear the pain like a heavy coat. I feel you everywhere I go. I see your smile, I see your face. I hear you laughin' in the rain. I still can't believe that you're gone…'_

* * *

_Hey, just wanted to say that I will not be updating any new chapters for awhile, I'm rewriting the story and will update a newly rewritten chapter every Friday until I've updated all of the chapters I've finished, after that, chapters will be updated when possible._

Lady Fanuilh


	9. Chapter 8: Death of Eve

Hi, I'm back!

Sorry about the long wait, life got in the way. Anyway, the two songs I used in this story is Whisper by Evanscence and Superman by Five for Fighting. Enjoy!

* * *

"How does it work?" Eve fingered the bottle of pills in her hand nervously. It was a plain orange bottle with a white lid and inside of it were small white pills. "Will it make me seem like I died?" She knew that she was taking a very big risk but she couldn't see any way out of it but to die… even just for a moment.

"Yes, but only if you did die for a moment then someone's got to bring you back, it only needs a second of life. Then it puts you back into a very deep coma… you shouldn't be too surprised if you should ever wake up in a morgue." An elderly man with frizzy white hair said as he looked at the young woman standing so helplessly before him. He wondered what was hunting her to the point that she was grasping at such dangerous solution to her problem.

"How would I know when to wake up? How long would it last?" Eve asked as she tucked the bottle away into a pocket and handed over the money.

"They told me that they know. Somehow they always know when to wake up. Some describe it as a dream and it ends… you wake up. It can be simple as that. I even heard that some says even though they are in a deep coma, they can still hear what's going around them. I think that one is more of a urban legend then truth." The doctor shrugged. "Are you sure you want to do this? You seem like a nice girl, you shouldn't be risking your life like this… there had been cases where either they don't wake up or they wake up too late."

"I have no choice. I have to do this." Eve said firmly as she handed over the money.

"Very well. I wish all the best of luck and I hope you wake up."

"Me too."

* * *

"By the way love, better hurry 'cause they only have 10 minutes to live!" The sound of Poison Ivy's voice broke through the black haze threaten to overtake Eve's mind. Faintly she knew that symbol of her fear was standing just a short distance away. She almost could see him in her mind's eye and for some strange reason… it brought her comfort.

_Catch me as I fall… say you're here and it's all over now. Speaking to the atmosphere… no one's here and I fall into myself… this truth drives me into madness… I know I can stop the pain if I will it all away… _It seemed almost fitting that the very person that she feared the most was there to watch her struggle for life. But then Eve felt the vines loosen their grip slightly on her body as she heard the departing sounds of Batman leaving the warehouse. For a panicked moment Eve wanted to scream after him… to save her and not the children but then she pushed the urge down firmly, telling herself that this had to happen… that she needed everyone to believe that she died alone in the warehouse. Besides… she didn't have the breath anymore to scream much less whisper.

_Don't turn away. Don't give into the pain. Don't try to hide. Though they're screaming your name. Don't close your eyes. God knows what lies behind them. Don't turn out the light. Never sleep… never die… _Earlier while Ivy was ranting at her thugs, Eve had managed to take the pills without anyone seeing her and she could now feel a strange tingling along her fingers as the meds kicked in. Suddenly without warning, the vines let go of her body and she fell to the ground with a small groan. Eve tried to push back at the blackness that was taking over her mind but it was overcoming her too quickly… her body was dieing and there was nothing she could do about it. Eve couldn't hold on anymore, she could feel her mind slipping always like the sands of time. The last thing she remembered thinking was…

_"Please God… don't let me die."_

_

* * *

I'm frightened by what I see but somehow I know that there's much more to come. Immobilized by my fear… and soon to be blinded by tears… I can stop the pain if I will it all away…_

_Eve curled up tighter as if trying to hide from humanity but she knew that it was useless. There was no way she could hide from the world… it wouldn't let her. Slowly she opened her eyes and stared blankly into the darkness._

_"_Is anyone there?_" Eve asked softly of the darkness, not really expecting a reply. "_Am I dead?_" Eve asked again into the darkness as she pushed herself into a sitting pose and wrapped her arms around herself. She felt so cold…_

_Don't turn away. Don't give into the pain. Don't try to hide. Though they're screaming your name. Don't close your eyes. God knows what lies behind them. Don't turn out the light. Never sleep… never die… _

_"_Where am I?_" Eve stood up as she looked around at the surroundings but she couldn't see past the barrier of darkness. There was a faint feeling that she had been here before but she couldn't place it. _

_"Nowhere… everywhere…" A whisper came to her ears and she turned to find the speaker but no one was there. Eve hugged her arms tighter around herself as she tried to make sense of what was happening to her. She felt like she was coming dangerously close to something terrible. Faintly she could hear voices whispering to her._

_"It would be easier to give up… just lie down and close your eyes…" _

_"Your journey on this world is done… rest… sleep… forever…"_

_"_No. I won't._" Eve replied defiantly to the deadly whispers knowing that if she followed their suggestions… she would never wake up again. That she would really die. _"It's not my time."

_"Is someone paging Dr. Harrison? We need her now!" Eve turned her head when she heard the voice yelling but as if from a great distant. She suddenly realized that it was voices of the people who were trying to save her life. _

_"_I can't leave yet." _Eve said, more to herself then to whoever was speaking as if reminding herself that she shouldn't listen, she shouldn't give up… not yet. "_Who are you? Where are you? Show yourself!_" Eve said firmly into the darkness as she stood up and turned slowly but she couldn't see anything pass the darkness that surrounded her. _

_"Why of course, my dear. Anything for you." Scarecrow grinned fiendishly as he stepped out of the darkness. "After all, you are mine, my dear." He sneered as he spread out his hands which dripped with blood._

_"_Why am I not surprised you're here._" Eve said dryly as she glared at Scarecrow. "_Go away, little man. You're nothing. Just a fragment of my mind and nothing more. I'm not in the mood to deal with you right now._" Eve shot at him as she turned her back on him. She gasped when Scarecrow suddenly grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her closer, his breath stirring the hair besides her ear as he leaned in close._

_"I know too…" Scarecrow whispered in a low voice as a cruel smile curled at his lips as he stroked a finger along her jaw. "You told me, remember? Well, to be more truthful, you told Dr. Crane but I know your secret." Scarecrow roughly grabbed her by the neck and pulled her closer. "I won't be denied of you!" He snarled before Eve ripped herself away from him, one hand going to her throat as she moved away from him._

_"_Stay away from me!_" Eve spat at him in anger but at the same time fear. He was getting stronger and she didn't know why. "_Don't you ever dare to touch me again!_" She tried to hide the trembling of her body but she knew that he saw, that Scarecrow had gained what he wanted for so long… her fear. _

_"Fine my dear, I'll leave you alone… for now." Scarecrow laughed cruelly as he bowed deeply before turning and vanishing into the darkness. Suddenly the light that surrounded seemed to get brighter until she had to hold a hand over her eyes but even then, the light continued to get brighter until her whole world seemed to be made of light… _

Eve drew in a shaky breath as she opened her eyes. She could hear the slow breathing of the doctors who stood around her as they watched her closely and carefully. She could hear a slow beeping sound and it took her a moment before she realized that it was a monitor counting out each and every one of her slow heartbeats. Faintly in the back of her mind she could feel the drug working, the tingling feeling had moved from her fingers and now had spread throughout her whole body.

"We did it..?" Eve heard one of the nurses whisper softly from off the side. Then she felt a hand grasp hers in a strong but gentle hold. Faintly Eve smiled at the comfort that the doctor offered through the simple gesture before her eyes closed, submitting to the darkness for the second time and from far off… she could hear the monitor emit a steady tone and frantic voices.

_Fallen angels at my feet. Whispered voices at my ear… death before my eyes. Lying next to me I fear. She beckons me shall I give in… upon my end shall I begin… forsaking all I've fallen for I rise to meet the end…_

* * *

"Hello handsome." Poison Ivy smiled coyly as Scarecrow spun around in surprise at the sound of her voice as she came out of the shadows where she had been watching him, interested but disgusted at the same time, Ivy was never the one for blood.

"You could get killed sneaking up on people like that." Scarecrow said with a smirk as he took in Ivy and relaxed as he moved away from the body of a young man he had just killed. Ivy's nose wrinkled at the scent of death and blood before composing herself. She knew that she was dealing with someone very dangerous and it wouldn't do to show weakness before him.

"You been busy amusing yourself since you escaped." Ivy said dryly as she gathered up the hem of her cloak so that it wouldn't fall into any of the blood that had been spilt. "I'm here to offer a partnership between you and me. We both have a problem that just won't go away on its own." Ivy gave him a flirting smile.

"Really? What kind of "partnership" are you offering, my dear?" Scarecrow asked as he pulled a large white handkerchief out of a pocket and wiped the blood from his hands before tossing it onto the body with a mild look of disgust at the corpse. Once they were dead, they were useless husks, nothing.

"I can't get close to Batman all by my lonesome. He'd kill me before he would let me get close to him again. Not after what I did to him." Ivy pouted daintily but then her smile was evil. "But if you were to say… distract him, just only for a moment, then I can give him a whiff of my pheromones and Batman will be under my control again. Easy as pie, darling. Batman won't be a problem for us anymore."

"Interesting plan. What do I get out of it?"

"If Batman can't be controlled, you can do whatever you want with him." Ivy purred as she circled Scarecrow and leaned in to whisper in his ear. "Kill him… make him suffer… whatever you want." Ivy smirked as she moved away from him "If he could be controlled however, Gotham is ours for taking and you can have all the souls you want."

"Tell me dear, how soon can we put this wonderful plan of yours into action? Scarecrow asked as he came up to Poison Ivy, holding every inch of himself like a gentleman as he offered an elbow, pulling on the persona of the doctor who had chained him for so long.

"Soon." Ivy smiled sweetly at him as she tucked her hand into the bend of his offered elbow and they left the alley behind, leaving the body where it was laying. They paused a moment under a streetlamp as Ivy turned to face Scarecrow.

"We just need the perfect bait. Something that would bring Batman out even against his will. I'm thinking children, heroes always have a soft spot for those little brats." Ivy purred as she coyly glanced at him but Scarecrow grinned as a different idea came to his mind.

"Actually my dear… I have a better idea." Scarecrow said as he smiled at her words. It was time to see if an old childhood friend of Dr. Crane was truly dead.

* * *

"_Wake up." _Eve's eyes opened suddenly. For a moment her brain felt like it was wrapped in cotton before it finally started to clear. Then she realized two things that she didn't really wanted to wake up to. One, she was stark naked plus freezing and two, she was laying on a cold hard metal table with only a thin cloth for cover. At least she wasn't inside of one of those drawers… how does one get out of those?

"You got to be kidding me." Eve groaned to herself as she pulled the cloth away from her face and listened carefully for some kind of sound that would clue her in where she was although she was getting a feeling that she was at the morgue. At the moment it was quiet… almost like a tomb her mind unwilling said before she shoved that thought away. Carefully sitting up, Eve gave herself a check over, making sure that she was in one piece.

"Now for the next step in the plan… find some freaking clothes." Eve muttered to herself darkly as she wrapped the cloth around her body and placed a foot carefully on the ground, almost worried about what she would find on the ground of a morgue. She hoped that they had cleaned up before closing for the night she really didn't want to find any nasty surprises.

"Son of a…" Eve groaned to herself as she hit her knee against a table painfully. "Bloody hell, of all places to wake up in…"

"Holy…" A strange male voice said suddenly and then there was a thumping noise that sounded like to Eve a body falling to the ground in a dead faint. A grin spread across her face as she turned.

"Bingo. I asked and lo, the clothes came." Eve said to herself with a small laugh as she headed in the direction where the noise came from. It took a little time to find where the man fainted but she was finally rewarded when she finally found his foot. He was gonna wake up to a surprise.

_

* * *

I can't stand to fly… I'm not that naïve… I'm just out to find the better part of me… I'm more than a bird… I'm more than a plane… more than some pretty face besides a train… It's not easy to be me…_

Batman leaned over the edge of the building he was currently crouched on like an oversized bat and was watching a small group of thugs going about their business of transporting drugs. At the moment there was three of them loading up the van, one was sitting in the driver's seat looking bored as he smoked a cigarette as he waited and the other two were standing nearby keeping an eye out for trouble.

Of course, none of them ever thought about looking upwards for trouble until it was too late. Batman took out both guards with well aimed punches before they could say anything but the two men who were loading the van recovered quicker from their shock then he expected as they brought up their guns that were tucked in the waistband of their pants.

"It's the Batman!" One of them yelped in surprise, fear entering his face before the other two open fired upon Batman. Quickly Batman darted behind a large storage container as bullets struck harmlessly against the metal that temporary protected him.

"Where the hell is he?!" One of the thugs asked as he looked around, his gun at ready to fire at anything that moves. He was wary that Batman might come up behind him when he was last expecting it. He heard too many stories about this mysterious caped crusader. Suddenly he heard a strangled yelp from behind and whirled around just in time to see one of his buddies get yanked off his feet and into the darkness.

"Crap! We don't stand a chance against him!" The only other thug who was still standing yelped as he fired his gun into the darkness around him in blind panic causing the other to duck in fear of catching a stray bullet.

"Stop that you idiot!" He yelped at the other before suddenly getting a gut feeling that Batman was right behind him. Spinning around, he fired his gun just moments before Batman's fist connected with his jaw, putting him down for counts. The other and the driver, Batman mange to take care of quickly but the battle cost him. He stood still, his eyes taking in the surroundings, as he made sure that he had taken care of all the thugs before sinking to his knees with a groan. Very carefully, Batman gently touched his side and then pulled his hand away, staring at the blood that covered the glove. His armor only can protect him from indirect or distant gunfire but not the point blank shot the thug managed to get out before Batman knocked him out.

"Damn it… Alfred was right." Batman muttered to himself with a groan as he pulled himself back to his feet staggered a few feet before falling again. He had pushed himself too far and had gotten sloppy. Now he had to pay the price. Steeling himself against the pain, he stood up again and begun the long walk back to his tumbler.

_Wish that I could cry… fall upon my knees. Find a way to lie about a home I'll never see. It may sound absurd… but don't be naïve… even heroes have the right to bleed. I may be disturbed… but won't you concede… even heroes have the right to dream. It's not easy to be me…_

* * *

Jeeves ran down the stairs of the church and opened the door to see who was banging on the door. At first he just saw the back of a strange young woman wearing a bulky coat and a hat that hid her hair from sight. Jeeves didn't recognize the clothes but there was something about the woman's stance, her shape that was... Then she turned around and he had the greatest shock of his life.

"Happy Halloween, Jeeves." Eve greeted with a lopsided smile.

* * *

Eve's alive! Yay! Should had known she'd have something up her sleeve...

Of course, it's always nice to hear back from y'all... click that button and review:o)


	10. Chapter 9: Illusion

Hi! Just one review? C'on, I know you can do better than that.

Anyway, this it. I'm finally done! Now, if this page seems different from the earlier chapters, it's because I wrote this one almost two years after I wrote the eariler chapters. The songs I used were Under Pressure by David Bowie and We Are the Champions by Queen.

Enjoy!

* * *

Pressure pushing down on me. Pressing down on you no man ask for. Under pressure – that burns a building down. Splits a family in two. Puts people on streets…

_Eve frowned. There was something familiar about this place to her but she couldn't put her finger on it. She was standing in a white room one wall had large glass windows that were mirrored so she couldn't see through. She turned slowly, examining the room when something clicked in her mind. If Eve had been able to see, she would had seen that this was the very room that she confessed her dreams to Dr. Crane. _

It's the terror of knowing. What the world is about. Watching some good friends. Screaming 'Let me out'. Pray tomorrow – gets me higher. Pressure on people – people on streets…

_"I was wondering when you were going to remember." Scarecrow laughed as he stepped through a door and closed it tightly behind himself. "Don't you remember? You told me about your dream of the green death. Jonathan gave you pills to take but you never took them, did you?" He asked as he cornered Eve in a corner and stroked a finger along her cheek._

_"_No._" Eve replied softly before gathering her courage. "_You still wanna hear me scream?_" She shot at him as she slapped his hand away. _

O.k. chippin' around – kick my brains around the floor. These are the days it never rains but it pours…

_"Not anymore." A chilling smile spread across his face and Eve shivered at the sight of it. "I'm going to use you. I have plans for you my dear. I think I might have fun with you first and when I'm done with you, I'll use you to bring the Batman to me."_

_"_I won't let you._"_

_"I love your bravery, my dear. It's so… endearing." Scarecrow commented, one hand toying with a lock of Eve's hair. Eve wilted under his touch as she pressed herself against the wall trying to get further away from him._

It's the terror of knowing. What this world is about. Watching some good friends. Screaming 'Let me out'. Pray tomorrow – gets me higher high high. Pressure on people – people on streets. Turned away from it all like a blind man. Sat on a fence but it don't work. Keep coming up with love. But it's so slashed and torn…

_"My poor Eve. You take so much upon yourself, you can't save the Batman no matter how hard you try." Scarecrow sneered as Eve turned around so that her back was to him and she was facing the wall. She cringed when she felt his hands grasp her shoulders in a painful grip._

_"I'm coming for you, my dear." He whispered in her ear with an evil delight. "For all you know, I'm standing in your lovely loft watching you sleep at this very moment… what pleasures we can have together… all you have to do is give yourself up to me." Scarecrow tucked the lock of hair behind Eve's ear as she jerked away. _

Why – why – why? Love love love love love…

_"_My dear scarecrow, empty threats like that don't scare me._" Eve said as she turned back to Scarecrow and glared at him. "_I'd know if you're there._"_

_"Would you?" Scarecrow smiled harshly when she hesitated, just the briefest of moments that would have been missed by normal people… but Scarecrow wasn't normal. "I thought so. You know I'm coming for you."_

_"_Yes, I know._"_

Insanity laughs under pressure we're cracking. Can't we give ourselves one more chance? Why can't we give love that one more chance? Why can't we give love give love give love give love give love give love give love give love give love. 'Cause love's such an old fashioned word. And love dares you to care for. The people on the edge of the night and loves dares you to change our way of caring about ourselves…

_"_Don't you ever think that'd mean I'd plan something? I fooled Poison Ivy and I can trick you._" Eve said as she stepped forward, driving Scarecrow backwards, each word was thrown at him like a weapon that could harm. "_I refuse to be weak! I won't! I dealt with being blind and yes, I still cry at night whenever I think of the beauty I can't see anymore. I refuse to let _you _though, a worthless monster bully me any longer!_" Eve shouted._

This is our last dance. This is our last dance. This is ourselves. Under pressure. Under pressure. Pressure…

_"Brava, Brava my dear, I was starting to get worried that you lost your nerve." Scarecrow laughed as he clapped his hands slowly startling Eve that she took a step backwards suddenly unsure of herself again. "I want you to plan something. I want you to try to trick me my dear. I'd love nothing more then anything then to have this battle of wills between us." He laughed._

_"_What have you planed?_"_

_"I shouldn't spoil the surprise for you my dear." Scarecrow grinned as he stepped to the door. "You won't see me coming." He promised before laughed again as he closed the door behind himself, leaving Eve alone in the white room with a look of terror on her face. Then slowly the terror faded and a small half smile quirked at the corner of her mouth as she laughed softly._

_"_Wanna bet?_"_

* * *

Gordon shivered in the cold air and flipped the collar of his coat up for added warmth as he waited on the rooftop. He was hoping that Batman was out and would see him waiting but there wasn't really a chance that it'd happen… but he had to try. Gordon looked around and checked his watch for what seemed like the hundredth time but he was still alone.

"You're not using the signal." Gordon jerked at the harsh voice that suddenly spoke from behind him and he turned to find Batman standing just a few feet away, his cloak draped around him so that he looked like a pillar of darkness.

"I don't want anyone else to know." Gordon replied as he shoved his hands into the pockets and he could feel the piece of paper that brought him out this night.

"Why?"

"Eve told me to. She told me to wait here tonight and to give you a message." Gordon replied as his hand tightened around the paper, crumpling it.

"Eve?" Batman came closer. "Eve isn't dead."

"No… she planed for everyone to think that she died but she's alive." Gordon noticed that Batman didn't seem too surprised by the news and wondered how he knew. "Scarecrow's after Eve now though and she has a plan." He pulled the paper out of his pocket and held it out to Batman. Batman took the note and quickly opened it to read it. Gordon rubbed a hand along his forehead and when he looked up again, Batman was gone.

* * *

"Jeeves? Can you close the window? I'm cold." Eve murmured as she rubbed her arms before picking up a paintbrush and stroked the tip along the canvas. She smiled as she heard the widow creak as it was pulled shut and she started to feel warmer. "Thank you."

"Anything for you my dear." Eve jerked and dropped the paintbrush as Scarecrow's voice echoed through the loft and she leaped up, running for the doorway when she felt him grab her by the arm, swinging her around until she slammed against him.

"You! You shouldn't be here yet." Scarecrow laughed at her words.

"Even with that second sight of yours, you never saw me coming." He laughed as she struggled in his arms, beating her fist on his chest. "Now my dear, are you going to come willing or unwilling?"

"I won't!" Eve freed an arm enough to land a stinging slap across Scarecrow's face causing his grip to loosen enough that she was able to free herself. Instead of running though, Eve made her stand, it was no use running when you couldn't see where the enemy was, she'd might run right into him.

"Good. Its more fun this way." Eve yelped when he grabbed her suddenly, his grip bruising on her arms. "But how are you going to defend yourself? You are blind, my dear. You wouldn't be able to see me. Hmm…" He moved quickly as she tried to kick him and spun her around, pulling her to his chest. He leaned down so that he could speak into her ear.

"It seems that you are not completely clawless, you are still fighting. I love that about you my dear. You'd fight to the end."

"Let go of me!" Eve yanked against him but he was too strong, finally she sagged limply in his grip. "What do you want?"

"You know what I want. The Batman."

"Be careful of what you wish for, Scarecrow. It just might come true." Eve warned causing Scarecrow straighten with surprise.

"What do you have up your sleeve you little minx?" Scarecrow spat as he spun Eve around again and shook her until her teeth rattled against each other. "What trap had you laid for me?" He asked as his eyes narrowed, he could feel his carefully laid out plan was starting to fall apart.

"Me." With that soft reply, Scarecrow knew.

* * *

"You could have told me you were alive." Bruce scolded lightly when he finally found Eve sitting on the back of an ambulance with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders and a cup of hot tea in her hands.

"Sorry." Eve smiled meekly causing Bruce to smile.

"I guess I'll have to forgive you then." He joked lightly as he sat down next to Eve and watched as Gordon talked to some of the cops. Scarecrow had been handed into the tender care of Gotham's finest and was now currently on his way to the Arkham Asylum where a room was waiting for him. Eve sighed and leaned her head against his shoulder.

"I'm sorry about Pamela." Eve finally said after a moment of silence.

"I'll get over it." Bruce wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "I should have known she was too good to be true."

"Did the cops find Ivy?"

"Yes. They picked her up yesterday. Which means you're safe now." Poison Ivy's room was actually just right across from Scarecrow's. The nurse shooed them away, saying that Eve was going to be fine all she need was just some sleep and quiet. Bruce and Eve walked together towards the church as a small smile spread across Eve's face, everything's okay, everyone was safe now…

…even if it was just an momentary illusion.

_I've paid my dues, time after time. I've done my sentence but committed no crime and bad mistakes, I've made a few. I've my share of sand kicked in my face… but I've come through and I need to go on and on and on and on…_

_We are the champions – my friend. And we'll keep on fighting till the end. We are the champions... we are the champions… no time for losers 'cause we are the champions of the world…_

* * *

I know you'd wanna see a fight scene but I really wasn't in the mood to write it... I don't really write a lot of fight scenes actually. I like it better this way anyway.

Anyway, reviews would be greatly appreciated & I have a new story in the works. It's called "Insomniac" and features the Riddler as the villain of the story. Check it out!

Lady Fanuilh


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